Amherst, MA — The quarterfinals of the men’s and women’s A Divisions were played this afternoon, while the men’s and women’s B Division quarterfinals are being played now.
Ramsay Cup (Women’s A Division): The quarterfinals in the top half of the women’s A bracket went on at noon. Princeton’s Libby Eyre did her best to slow Amanda Sobhy’s march through the draw, but the Harvard first-year was too strong, winning in three short games. Harvard senior Cece Cortes was on a tear yesterday, upsetting two higher-seeded opponents to make it into the quarterfinals. Princeton junior Julie Cerullo put a stop to Cortes’ run, advancing to the semis with a 3-0 win. Sobhy and Cerullo will play in the first semifinal.
In the other half of the draw, Yale teammates Millie Tomlinson and Kimberley Hay met in one quarterfinal. After a close first game, Tomlinson pulled away to advance in three games. The other match-up between Stanford’s Pamela Chua and Harvard’s Laura Gemmell was the closest of the four quarterfinals, but Gemmell still advanced in three strong games. The Tomlinson-Gemmell semifinal will be a rematch of last year’s individual final, which Tomlinson won in three.
Pool Trophy (Men’s A Division): The men’s quarterfinals followed the women’s, and the first two quarters were decided in three games. Ali Farag of Harvard, the top seed, defeated Antonio Diaz of Trinity in three: 11-4, 11-6, 11-3. The first game between Trinity’s Vikram Malhotra and Princeton’s Sammy Kang went into tie-breakers. Malhotra won the game 12-10 and went on to take the match in three. Farag and Malhotra will play in the first men’s semifinal. Two weeks ago they went to five games when they met in the semifinals of the Men’s National Team Championships; Farag won that match and their match in the regular season.
Princeton teammates Kelly Shannon and Todd Harrity played against each other in the second set of quarterfinals. The first game took almost twenty minutes, and Harrity, the defending individual champion, was the winner. The second game was decided 11-1 in Harrity’s favor, but Shannon regrouped and nearly forced a fourth before Harrity won 11-9 to stop the match at three games. The last quarterfinal was the most competitive, with Andres Duany of Rochester and Ramit Tandon of Columbia trading point after point. Duany won the first game but visibly began to tire in the second, and Tandon advanced to the semifinals in four. Tandon and Harrity will play in the second semifinal. Tandon won in four over Harrity in the regular season Princeton-Columbia match.
Holleran Cup (Women’s B Division): The round of 16 was played this morning, and the quarterfinals are being played this afternoon. One quarterfinal has already been completed: Alex Lunt of Princeton defeated Elena Laird of Middlebury in three. The other quarterfinal match-ups are Shihui Mao (Yale) versus Steph Vogel (Penn), Robyn Hodgson (Trinity) versus Casey Cortes (Princeton), and Issey Norman-Ross (Yale) versus Shara Robertson (Mount Holyoke).
Molloy Cup (Men’s B Division): After the round of 16 this morning, the following quarterfinal match-ups were set: Matthew Mackin (Trinity) versus Blake Reinson (Brown); Vishrab Kotian (Trinity) versus Kyle Ogilvy (St. Lawrence); Omar Sobhy (George Washington) versus William Morris (Williams); and Danny Greenberg (Penn) versus Clay Blackiston (Princeton). The quarterfinals will be played this afternoon, and the semifinals will take place tomorrow morning.
