New Haven, CT — Today’s semifinals saw the top two seeds advancing to the Hoehn Cup finals.
Top-seeded Drexel faced Princeton in one semifinal. A year ago, Drexel nearly upset Princeton in the B Division semifinals, but the Tigers outlasted the Dragons, 5-4, and went on to win their second consecutive Hoehn Cup. This time around, Drexel came into the tournament as the top seed in the B Division, and Princeton made it into the finals thanks to a 6-3 upset of Franklin & Marshall.
During the regular season, Drexel had defeated Princeton, 5-4, playing in Philadelphia.
Drexel swept the first round of matches, thanks to a three-game win at number 9 from Nathaniel Fry, a four-game win at number 6 from Michael Thompson, and another four-game win at number 3 from Atticus Kelly.
The Dragons weren’t about to start messing around: Joseph Gingold soon won in three at number 8. Princeton’s Abhimanyu Shah came back from 0-2 down to win the third game in extra points, but Drexel’s Luke Willemse took the match 11-9 in the fourth. With that, Drexel was into the final.
Even though the outcome of the match was decided, the Princeton men soldiered on, taking the remaining matches past three games, with William Oon winning in five at number 5.
The final score was Drexel 8, Princeton 1.
The other semifinal featured Cornell, the second seed in the division, versus George Washington, the third seed. Last season, the two squads met in the opening round of the Hoehn Cup, with Cornell winning, 6-3. The Big Red lost in the semifinals to Dartmouth, and George Washington lost in the consolation semifinals to Bates.
When the Colonials and Big Red played this January, George Washington won, 5-4.
In the first round, George Washington won at the top with Andres de Frutos’ four-game win at number 3. Cornell took the other two matches with a three-game win from Kevin Flannery at number 6 and a four-game win from Benjamin Francis at number 9.
Oisin Logan gave the Colonials another win at number 2, tying up the team match at 2-all. Andrew Muran came back from 0-2 to win in five for the Big Red at number 5. Alex Jung gave Cornell another five-game victory at number 8. The Big Red needed only won more match to advance to the final. They got two: Jordan Brail’s five-game win at number 4 and Graham Dietz’s three-game win at number 7. The Colonials won another match at the top, bringing the final score to Cornell 6, George Washington 3.
Drexel and Cornell will play for the Hoehn Cup and the B Division title tomorrow at 11:30 am.
In the consolation semifinals, Franklin & Marshall defeated Penn, 5-4, and Navy blanked Middlebury, 9-0. F&M and Navy will meet in the consolation final tomorrow morning.
