Hartford, CT — Play has become increasingly competitive on the second day of the 2013 Individual Championships.
Ramsay Cup (Women’s A Division): Defending Ramsay Cup champion Amanda Sobhy of Harvard breezed past Cornell’s Danielle Letourneau in the first quarterfinal. Sobhy was in fine form in the three-game win: 11-1, 11-5, 11-3. For the past two years, Princeton’s Julie Cerullo has reached the semifinals of the Ramsay Cup. Her bid for a semifinal three-peat fell a round short, as Penn’s Yan Xin Tan defeated her in three games: 11-5, 11-8, 11-9. Trinity’s Kanzy El Defrawy roared out to a commanding lead in her quarterfinal match against 2010 Ramsay Cup champion Laura Gemmell, winning her first game 11-1. Gemmell came back stronger in the second game and won the third in extra points, but El Defrawy shut down the match in the fourth, winning the deciding game 11-2. Princeton’s Libby Eyre looked like she had 2011 Ramsay Cup champion Millie Tomlinson of Yale on the ropes during their quarterfinal match. Tomlinson, however, regrouped and won the match in five. The semifinals will take place this evening. Sobhy will play Tan, and Tomlinson will play El Defrawy. In the first round consolation semifinals, Jaime Laird (Cornell) will play Michelle Gemmell (Harvard), and Anna Porras (George Washington) will face Pia Trikha (Penn). Advancing in the second round consolation draw were Rachael Goh (Penn), Catalina Pelaez (Trinity), Haley Mendez (Harvard), and 2013 Richey Award winner Pamela Chua (Stanford).
Holleran Cup (Women’s B Division): Yale’s Issey Norman-Ross came back from being down 0-2 against Princeton’s Hallie Dewey to win and advance to the Holleran Cup semifinals. Harvard’s Julianne Chu watched a 2-0 lead over Yale’s Annie Ballaine evaporate, only to come back and win her round-of-16 match in five. Norman-Ross will play Alexis Saunders (Princeton) in the quarters, and Chu will play Nina Scott (Dartmouth). Saunders defeated Reyna Pacheco (Columbia), and Scott beat Lillian Fast (Yale). Jennifer Pelletier (Trinity) and Julie Koenig (Stanford) both advanced with three-game wins over Cornell players: Pelletier defeated Lindsay Seginson, and Koenig beat Maggie Remsen. Pelletier and Koenig will each face players who won in four games in the round of 16. Pelletier will play Stanford’s Madeleine Gill, who won against Camille Lanier (Penn), and Koenig will take on Princeton’s Alex Sawin, who defeated Courtney Jones (Penn). In the first-round consolation bracket, Sarah Loucks (Dartmouth), Alyssa Northrup (Williams), Myriam Kelly (Bates), and Melina Turk (Dartmouth) all advanced to the semifinals. Loucks will take on Northrup, and Kelly will square off against Turk. The following players all advanced to the quarterfinals of the second round consolation bracket: Sherouk Omar (Mount Holyoke), Laura Henry (Williams), Chloe Blacker (Penn), Damindhi Udangawa (Drexel), Nicole Feshbach (Williams), Tara Harrington (Princeton), Chanel Erasmus (Trinity), and Steph Vogel (Penn).
Pool Trophy (Men’s A Division): Two former Pool Trophy finalists will not be advancing past the quarterfinals. In a rematch of the 2011 Pool Trophy final, Nick Sachvie of Cornell faced Todd Harrity of Princeton in the quarterfinals. As in the 2011 final, Harrity — the 2013 Skillman Award winner — won in three. After two games of deft, crowd-pleasing play between Bates freshman Ahmed Abdel Khalek and 2012 Pool Trophy finalist Ramit Tandon of Columbia, the match score was tied 1-1. It looked like the contest was going to go the distance, but Abdel Khalek came back to win in four — 11-8, 10-12, 11-6, 11-5 — sending home crowd favorite Tandon early while establishing himself as a player to watch. Another new player to keep an eye on is St. Lawrence’s Amr Khalifa, who won in four over Princeton’s Tyler Osborne. Frustrated after dropping the second game 11-13 to Osborne, Khalifa stormed back to take the third game 11-4 and the fourth 11-5 to win the match. The final quarterfinal featured 2012 Pool Trophy semifinalist Andres Duany of Rochester and 2012 Pool Trophy champion Ali Farag of Harvard. Duany pushed Farag hard early in the match, but the defending champion pulled out a four-game win: 9-11, 11-1, 11-6, 11-8. Harrity will play Abdel Khalek in the first semifinal, and Farag will play Khalifa in the second. In the first-round consolation semifinals, Mauricio Sendano (Franklin & Marshall) will play Miled Zarazua (Trinity), and Johan Detter (Trinity) will play Adam Perkiomaki (Rochester). Advancing in the second round consolation draw were Faraz Khan (Rochester), Gui De Melo (Franklin & Marshall), and Sammy Kang (Princeton).
Molloy Cup (Men’s B Division): Neither Blake Reinson of Brown nor John Steele of Wesleyan will be running on fresh legs when they meet in the Molloy quarterfinals. Reinson’s and Steele’s round-of-16 matches both went the distance, with Reinson winning in five over Pedro Almeida (Franklin & Marshall) and Steele winning over Sebastian Riedelsheimer (St. Lawrence). Rochester’s Karm Kumar and Williams’ Nick Marks also had their work cut out for them in the round of 16: it took Kumar four matches to advance over Ibrahim Khan (St. Lawrence) and Marks five over Andrew McGuinness (Navy). Princeton’s Vivek Dinodia and Drexel’s Binura Jayasuriya, who will play in the quarters, both won their round-of-16 matches in three games. Dinodia defeated Harvard’s Tommy Mullaney, and Jayasuriya beat Drexel teammate Justin Singh. Dartmouth’s Robbie Maycock and Amherst’s Noah Browne will play in the final quarterfinal match; Maycock swept Andrew Hilbodt (Bowdoin) 3-0 to advance, and Browne took down Mohamed Abdel Maksoud (Columbia) in four. The semifinals of the first round consolation will feature Chris Jung (Dartmouth) versus Matthew Mackin (Trinity), and Michael LeBlanc (Princeton) versus Tony Zou (Columbia). Advancing to the second round consolation quarterfinals were Aditya Advani (Tufts), Jay Dolan (Middlebury), Alexander Arjoon (Franklin & Marshall), Zeyad El Shorafy (Trinity), Kyle Ogilvy (St. Lawrence), Ibrahim Bakir (Drexel), Ryan Todd (Cornell), and Jim Kacergis (Navy).
