Hartford, CT — The Ramsay Cup final will be between Amanda Sobhy (Harvard) and Kanzy El Defrawy (Trinity). The Pool Trophy final will be between Todd Harrity (Princeton) and Amr Khalifa (St. Lawrence).
Ramsay Cup (Women’s A Division): Harvard’s Amanda Sobhy has been dominant throughout her college career, and this evening was no different. Yan Xin Tan of Penn, her opponent in the semifinals, may have won the first point, but Sobhy left no doubt who was in control of the match. She won in three: 11-5, 11-2, 11-5. The semifinal between Kanzy El Defrawy (Trinity) and Millie Tomlinson (Yale) was a different story. The two were tied 1-1 on the season, with Defrawy winning their regular season match-up and Tomlinson taking their match at Howe Cup. After two games, they were still tied: El Defrawy won the first game 11-6, and Tomlinson won the second 11-7. The next game was close, but El Defrawy had the edge, winning 11-9. She didn’t look back and claimed her spot in the final with an 11-6 win in the fourth. The Ramsay Cup final between Sobhy and El Defrawy is scheduled for 1:00 pm Sunday. Michelle Gemmell (Harvard) and Pia Trikha (Penn) will play in the first round consolation final, and Catalina Pelaez (Trinity) will play Haley Mendez (Harvard) in the second round consolation final.
Holleran Cup (Women’s B Division): Alex Sawin of Princeton had the smoothest trip through the quarterfinals, winning her match over Julie Koenig of Stanford in three games. Her Princeton teammate, Lexi Saunders, had to battle through five games against Yale’s Issey Norman-Ross to take her own place in the semifinals. Madeleine Gill of Stanford won in four over Trinity’s Jennifer Pelletier, as did Nina Scott of Dartmouth, who defeated Harvard’s Julianne Chu. One semifinal will be an all-Princeton affair, with Saunders and Sawin squaring off, and the other will feature Scott versus Gill. Sarah Loucks of Dartmouth and Myriam Kelly of Bates will play in the first round consolation final. Advancing to the second round consolation semis were Sherouk Omar of Mount Holyoke, Chloe Blacker of Penn, Tara Harrington of Princeton, and Steph Vogel of Penn.
Pool Trophy (Men’s A Division): In the first Pool Trophy semifinal, Ahmed Abdel Khalek of Bates came out swinging, running up a substantial lead on Todd Harrity. The Princeton senior patiently chipped away at Abdel Khalek’s lead, catching him at 7-all. Though Abdel Khalek showed flashes of brilliance in the next two games, it was Harrity’s match from that point on. He won a spot in his third career Pool Trophy final in three games: 11-7, 11-7, 11-4. Ali Farag of Harvard and Amr Khalifa of St. Lawrence put on a show in the second semifinal that will be difficult to top. Early on, Farag looked every bit the defending national individual champion he is, holding off Khalifa 11-9 in the first game and rolling over him 11-3 in the second. It seemed like Farag’s berth in a second consecutive Pool Trophy final was secure. Then a renewed Khalifa powered to a 11-7 win the third, following that performance with an 11-6 win in the fourth. In the fifth game, Farag and Khalifa went point for point, drawing gasps and appreciative murmurs from the crowd with their crisp shots and unexpected gets. Farag had match ball at 10-8, but Khalifa caught him again, forcing the game into extra points. They tied again at 11-all, and Khalifa at last pulled away, coming from 0-2 down to win 13-11 in the fifth. The Pool Trophy final between Harrity and Khalifa is scheduled for 12:00 pm Sunday. Trinity teammates Miled Zarazua and Johan Detter will play in the first round consolation final, and Faraz Khan (Rochester) and Sammy Kang (Princeton) will compete in the second round consolation final.
Molloy Cup (Men’s B Division): Blake Reinson of Brown may have played a five-game match earlier in the day, but that didn’t seem to slow him down in his quarterfinal match against John Steele of Wesleyan. Steele won the first game 11-9, but Reinson found extra reserves to win the next three games 11-9, 11-2, 11-4. Reinson will play Karm Kumar of Rochester in the semifinals, who played a grueling five-game match against Nick Marks of Williams in the quarters. Princeton’s Vivek Dinodia also went to five against his quarterfinal opponent, Binura Jayasuriya of Drexel. Several of the games went to tie-breakers: 12-10, 9-11, 12-14, 11-9, 11-4 to Dinodia. The Princeton freshman will face Dartmouth senior Robbie Maycock in the semifinals. Maycock displayed poise and composure in a sometimes contentious quarterfinal match against Noah Browne of Amherst, winning in four games. The first round consolation final will feature Matthew Mackin of Trinity and Tony Zou of Columbia. Aditya Advani (Tufts), Zeyad El Shorafy (Trinity), Kyle Ogilvy (St. Lawrence), and Ryan Todd (Cornell) advanced to the second round consolation finals.
