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Individual Nationals: Semifinals Recap

Harvard’s Victor Crouin (right), the 2-seed in the Men’s A Division, cruised to Sunday’s final with a 3-0 win over Yale’s Spencer Lovejoy, left. (photo credit: Michael T. Bello)

Saturday is semifinals day at the 2019 CSA Individual National Championships, with players in ten divisions competing for a place in their respective finals. All of the finals will be contested on Sunday with two national titles and 40 All-American awards (20 women and 20 men) up for grabs.

In Ramsay Cup (women’s A Division) play, undefeated top seed Sabrina Sobhy from Harvard finally met her match in the first semifinal.  Newcomer Sivasangari Subramaniam from Cornell announced her presence on the college scene, taking the first two games from the favored Sobhy. Sobhy jumped out to a big lead in Game 3 hoping to create some momentum. Though she won that game 11-7, Subramaniam recovered to clinch the upset and her finals berth with a fourth game win.

The second semifinal featured a rematch of the last two Ramsay Cup finals between 2017 champion Georgina Kennedy of Harvard and 2018 champion Reeham Sedky of Penn. Not surprisingly, the match lived up to its billing and produced the most competitive play of the day. Kennedy grabbed the first game, but Sedky powered back to take the next two. Kennedy bounced back herself to take the fourth game, putting everything on the result of the decisive fifth game. Kennedy roared out to a 6-2 lead, but Sedky recovered with a run of her own to bring the score to 7-6 Kennedy. In a final push to clinch the second upset victory of the women’s semifinals and a berth in the finals, Kennedy rattled off four straight points to win 11-6 in the fifth.

The Pool Trophy (men’s A Division) competition was held earlier in the day, with high level squash on display from the first point. No. 9 seed Mohamed El-Gawarhy of St. Lawrence continued his run of impressive form against fourth seed Andrew Douglas of Penn. El-Gawarhy’s shot-making ability appeared to be the difference in a cleanly played match, and he captured the first Pool final berth in a 3-0 victory. In the second semifinal, Harvard’s No. 2 and highest remaining seed, Victor Crouin, put on another masterful display against 6-seed Spencer Lovejoy of Yale. Lovejoy’s five-game quarterfinal battle on Friday evening could not have helped in a match which required maximum energy output, and Crouin cruised to the 3-0 win.

In the Pool and Ramsay consolation draws, four athletes earned First Team All-American honors by earning consolation finals berths. Stanford’s Elena Wagenmans and Yale’s Lucy Beecroft advanced on the women’s side, while Harvard’s Marwan Tarek and Penn’s Aly Abou El Einen did so for the men.

The Holleran and Molloy Divisions – the B Divisions for the women and men, respectively – will stage their finals on Sunday as well.  The winner of each final will be included on the Second Team All-America honoree list.

Holleran North: Mihiliya Kalahe Arachchige (Mount Holyoke) vs. Akanksha Salunkhe (Trinity)
Holleran South: Emma Jinks (Virginia) vs. Vanessa Raj (Trinity)
Holleran East: Eleonore Evans (Harvard) vs. Elle Ruggiero (Princeton)
Holleran West: Sophie Mehta (Harvard) vs. Jennifer Haley (Trinity)

Molloy North: Adhitya Raghavan (Princeton) vs. David Yacobucci (Penn)
Molloy South: Enzo Corigliano (St. Lawrence) vs. Harrison Gill (Yale)
Molloy East: Matt Giegerich (Dartmouth) vs. Charles Culhane (Cornell)
Molloy West: Bransten Ming (Drexel) vs. Matthew Toth (Rochester)

Follow all of the action live on Sunday on the 2019 CSA Individual National Championships page, including live streaming from the Nicol Squash Club, and live scores through Club Locker for each final.

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