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CSA Men’s Team National Championships Preview

The match-ups are now released for the 2019 CSA Men’s Team National Championships, to be hosted in New Haven, CT at Yale University, Wesleyan University, and Chelsea Piers CT on February 15-17, 2019.

All draws and live streaming of showcase courts are available on the Men’s Team Nationals page. The web stream will follow the action on Yale’s Brady Squash Center courts with commentary. Follow live scores on Club Locker for every match throughout the weekend by using your US Squash login or creating a free account.

59 teams from around the country will attend the championships and compete across seven divisions: Potter Cup (teams ranked No. 1-8)—which determines the national team champion, Hoehn Cup (9-16), Summers Cup (17-24); Conroy Cup (25-32); Chaffee Cup (33-40), Serues Cup (41-48), and Hawthorn Cup (49-59).

Parity has reigned throughout the rankings this year, especially in the top 24 positions that fill the first three divisions. Many contests will feature rematches of close matches from the regular season, now with everything on the line.

Top overall seed Harvard stayed mainly above the fray this season, compiling an undefeated record while winning all but two matches by 9-0 or 8-1 scores.  One of those exceptions was a 6-3 victory over No. 4 Penn, who the Crimson could meet in the semifinals if the seedings hold.  Penn will first have to handle the quarterfinal challenge against No. 5 Yale, who will be playing on their home courts and looking to avenge a 2-7 loss to Penn from January.

The University of Rochester is the 2-seed on the bottom of the Potter bracket, earning it’s highest National Championships seeding ever, slightly edging defending champion No. 3 Trinity. The Bantams have a very tough road to defending their title, as they take on No. 6 Columbia in the first round, a team they eeked out a victory against in early January. If Rochester beats first-round opponent Princeton and Trinity holds its position, the Rochester-Trinity semifinal – a rematch of Rochester’s thrilling triumph from this season – could be epic.

The Hoehn Division matches could be the closest and most exciting set of contests over the weekend.  As an example, the 1-vs-8 and 2-vs-7 match-ups are both rematches of very tight 5-4 results from earlier in the season. Top seed Virginia has been living on the edge since 2019 started, scoring six 5-4 wins in 11 total matches.  Navy-Drexel and St. Lawrence-Cornell, the other two quarterfinal matches, feature regional rivalries that surely will not disappoint. This division is anyone’s for the taking.

NESCAC teams have taken over the Summers Cup this year, with six of the eight entrants hailing from that conference.  Williams is the top seed and will take on Tufts in the first round, a team they did not meet in the NESCAC tournament two weeks ago.  The other all-NESCAC quarterfinal is 2-seed Middlebury vs. 7-seed Bowdoin.  Brown and an upstart MIT squad are the non-NESCAC contenders in this bracket, and they will take on Amherst and Bates, respectively.

Dickinson College leads the way as the top seed in the Conroy Division and will face one of the two club programs in this division, Stanford.  The other club, Bucknell, is the 7-seed and matches up against Colby in the first round.  The rubber match between Wesleyan and Conn College should be a good one on Friday, as each team captured one victory over the other during the season. Hobart and Haverford meet in the last quarterfinal of this draw.

The Chaffee Cup features the increased geographical diversity of CSA members with teams from California (top seed Cal-Berkeley), Illinois (4-seed University of Chicago), and Washington DC (6-seed Georgetown) taking part in the action. The only rematch of this bracket is the friendly local rivalry between New York teams Fordham and NYU.

Intriguing new match-ups dot the Serues Division schedule with none of the teams playing another from its region in the first round.  The 4-vs-5 match should be a good one as Northwestern aims to reverse its loss to Boston College during the Wildcats’ recent trip to the Northeast.  Rising club program Washington University in St. Louis snags the top seed in this division.

The Hawthorn Division will be a battle among some of the CSA’s newer teams and many players who are new to the game.  Again, the expanding geographical footprint is exciting, with midwestern Big Ten programs and teams from the Mid-Atlantic region getting in on some championship action.

 

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