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Individual Nationals Kicks off in DC

Play begins Friday in the 2018 College Individual Nationals with 160 of the top college players from around the country. The event will be hosted at George Washington University and Squash on Fire in Washington, DC. The players represent thirty-two men’s programs and thirty women’s programs.

The tournament consists of ten draws of sixteen players each, led by the Pool and Ramsay divisions which will determine the men’s and women’s national champions, respectively. There are four Molloy division draws (Men’s B) and four Holleran division draws (Women’s B); the winner of each will earn Second Team All-American honors.

In the Ramsay division, Reeham Sedky of Penn enters as the No. 1 seed after finishing the team season with an undefeated record for the second year in a row. Sedky’s only loss last season occurred in the final of this event where she lost to Georgina Kennedy of Harvard, who will begin her title defense as the No. 3 seed in 2018. After Harvard completed a dominant team season with a fourth consecutive national title, Kennedy is joined by three of her teammates in the top flight. Harvard’s Sabrina Sobhy, a Team USA member, is seeded fourth and slated to meet Sedky if both advance to the semifinals. Rounding out the top four seeds is second-seeded Olivia Fiechter, a senior at Princeton whose only two losses this season were both at the hands of Sedky.

In the Pool Division, a last-minute withdrawal of the top seed—2017 champion Osama Khalifa of Columbia—due to injury shook up the draw and guarantees a first-time champion in the men’s event. The new first seed is Trinity’s Kush Kumar, fresh off leading the Bantams to the national team championship. Kumar is seeded to meet Saad Abouaish of Harvard in the semifinal, whom he beat in three games last weekend. On the bottom half of the draw, Princeton’s Youssef Ibrahim holds the two seed, and is seeded to meet Andrew Douglass of Penn in the semifinal; Douglass nabbed his first career win over Youssef last Sunday at the team championships.

Follow all of the action live throughout the weekend at https://csasquash.com/individualnationals2018/, including live streaming from Squash on Fire, and live scores through Club Locker for each match throughout the tournament.

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