Northampton, MA — For the week ending 2/10/2013, Johns Hopkins’ Gabby Nyirjesy and Cornell’s Bryan Keating have been named the women’s and men’s [hpow].
A [hpow] should have a significant impact on his or her team’s performance during the prior week and demonstrate sportsmanship. Coaches and Sports Information Directors may nominate players. This is the final week of the 2012-2013 season that a [hpow] will be named.
As the regular season came to a close, a number of players had standout individual performances. George Washington’s Anna Porras finished her first season of college play with an 11-3 record at #1 for the Colonials. Penn senior Rachael Goh went out on a high note, closing her last weekend of regular-season play with a pair of wins. Harvard’s Tommy Mullaney, who is undefeated this season, reached the ten-win mark with a victory against Brown, and undefeated Harvard teammate Amanda Sobhy also picked up two wins.
In addition to their individual performances, the two [hpow] made the difference for their respective teams.
Gabby Nyirjesy (Johns Hopkins): When Nyirjesy took the court against Georgetown’s Betsy Johnson, the overall match score was at 4-3. It started to look like things were going to turn against the Blue Jays when Nyirjesy fell behind 0-1 in games and her teammate Louisa Drake lost her match, leveling the score at 4-all. Nyirjesy pulled out an 11-9 win in the second, followed by 11-6 and 11-7 wins to take the match. Her victory gave the Blue Jays’ a 5-4 upset over the Hoyas.
Bryan Keating (Cornell): History was not on Cornell’s side going into Friday’s match with Princeton. In 49 meetings between the two teams, the fifth-ranked Big Red had exactly one victory over the top-ranked Tigers. Cornell jumped out to a 4-2 lead but Princeton steadily closed the gap. The team match came down to the number 7 contest between Keating and Princeton’s David Hoffman. After winning the first game 11-8, Keating narrowly lost the second 10-12 and fell 6-11 in the third. He came back with an 11-5 win in the fourth to take the match to five games. With the score even at 9-all, Keating pulled away to win 11-9. His win gave the Big Red their first victory over Princeton at home in Ithaca.
