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Chan, Sharaf Capture National Collegiate Individual Titles

Trinity’s Mohamed Sharaf (second from the left) and Columbia’s Simmi Chan (second from the right) captured the National Collegiate Individual Championships on Sunday at the Arlen Specter US Squash Center in Philadelphia. (photos by Michael T. Bello)

Columbia University’s Simmi Chan and Trinity College’s Mohamed Sharaf earned the National Collegiate Women’s and Men’s Individual Championships, respectively, on Sunday afternoon at the Arlen Specter US Squash Center in Philadelphia. Chan overcame defending champion Siva Subramaniam of Cornell, while Sharaf stopped the cinderella run of Harvard’s 11-seed George Crowne.

From the outset, it appeared that Subramaniam would take a relatively straight road back to the championship with a simple 11-2 win in the first game. Chan responded well in Game 2, jumping out to a lead and then ultimately winning in extra points, 12-10, to knot the score at 1-1.

Chan showed great poise and control over most of the next two games, winning the third game 11-5 and jumping out to a lead in the fourth. Subramaniam, the champion and seasoned veteran, would not go away, however, as she turned away three match balls at the end of the fourth game. Chan regrouped each time, and an error by Subramaniam on the fourth match ball ended the match in favor of Columbia’s Hong Kong native.

Following the women’s final, the men’s finalists jumped right into action, and it was Sharaf who set the tone early, jumping out to a 6-0 lead in the first game. Crowne tried to work his way back into it, but Sharaf’s pace and accuracy were too much, earning an 11-7 win in the first game. Knowing that Crowne had earned his semifinal win in marathon comeback fashion, Sharaf kept the pressure up throughout games two and three. In the end, Sharaf’s limited time on court through the tournament paid dividends, with his energy carrying him to the championship in three straight games.

Chan is the first player in Columbia Women’s Squash history to win the Ramsay Cup as the National Collegiate Individual Women’s Champion. The only other Columbia Lion to win a national individual title was Osama Khalifa in 2017.

Sharaf brings the Pool Trophy back to Trinity for the first time since 2009, when Baset Chaudhry won the individual championship for his second time in a row. It is the sixth Pool Trophy win for a Paul Assaiante-coached player at Trinity.

All finals results from the Holleran (women’s) and Molloy (men’s) Divisions are listed below, along with links to the full draws. Each winner of the Holleran and Molloy Divisions earns a selection to the All-America Second Team.

Semifinal Results by Division

Ramsay Cup (A Division) – National Collegiate Women’s Championship
(3) Chan Sin Yuk – Columbia  def. (1) Sivasangari Subramanaim – Cornell
2-11, 12-10, 11-5, 13-11

Pool Trophy (A Division) – National Collegiate Men’s Championship
(4) Mohamed Sharaf – Trinity def. (11) George Crowne – Harvard
11-7, 11-7, 11-5

Holleran North 
(5) Lujan Palacios – Trinity def. (3) Caroline Spahr – Princeton

Holleran South
(2) Serena Daniel – Harvard def. (1) Liyen Teoh – Princeton

Holleran East
(1) Hannah Chukwu – Trinity def. (2) Lina Tammam – Virginia

Holleran West
(2) Aishwarya Khubchandani – Cornell def. (5) Brecon Welch – Harvard

Molloy North
(1) Joachim Chuah – Trinity def. (2) Tate Harms – Harvard

Molloy South
(2) Dillon Huang – Penn def. (9) Luis Moncada – Rochester

Molloy East
(1) Lewis Anderson – St. Lawrence def. (7) Arav Bhagwati – Yale

Molloy West
(1) Abdelrahman Lasheen – Rochester def. (14) Tushar Shahani – Penn

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