Hartford, CT — Several seniors stepped up and top seeds were bounced out during the first day of the 2010 Men’s and Women’s Individual Championships, held at Trinity’s Kellner Squash Center.
A week after helping lead her team to the national title, Harvard senior co-captain Johanna Snyder upset sixth-seeded Nour Baghat, the 2009 individual champion, in the first round of the Ramsay Cup (“A” Division). Snyder won the marathon first game 21-19, lost the next two games, and came back to win the final games 11-8, 11-9. A few hours later she took on Baghat’s Trinity teammate, Nayelly Hernandez Perez. Thanks to inspired play and crisp volleying, Snyder outlasted Hernandez in another five-gamer. She will face Kristen Lange, last year’s individual finalist, tomorrow in the quarterfinals.
The other quarter-finalists include two of Snyder’s teammates: Alisha Mashruwala, who defeated Julie Cerullo and Neha Kumar; and Laura Gemmell, who lost her first game of her college career in her 3-1 win over Cornell’s Rebecca Hazell in the first round. Two Yale teammates — Logan Greer and Sarah Toomey — also advanced to the quarterfinals. To get to the quarters, Toomey had to defeat Yale senior captain and 2010 Betty Richey Award recipient Alia Aziz in the round of 16. Toomey will face the winner of the Pamela Hathway/June Tiong match in the quarterfinals. Greer will play Williams senior Toby Eyre in the next round.
In the Holleran Cup, the women’s “B” Division, Corey Schafer, Christina Matthias, Katherine O’Donnell, Robyn Williams, Becky Lau, Annie Madeira, Liza Stokes, Courtney Bogle, Jennifer Gemmell, JoAnn Jee, Lauren Gesswein, Britt Hebden, Cece Cortes, Alicia Rodriguez Acosta, Bethan Williams, and Cecilia Haig all advanced to Saturday’s round of 16.
In the Pool Trophy competition, Nils Mattsson was the first player in recent memory from Navy to advance past the first round in the “A” Division. Mattsson, Navy’s senior captain, defeated Rochester’s Hameed Ahmed 3-0. Mattsson went on to face Trinity’s Parth Sharma in the round of 16 Friday evening.
Two top Princeton players, fourth-seeded junior David Letourneau and sophomore Chris Callis, were both out of the main draw after the first round. Trinity’s Andres Vargas defeated Letourneau, and Randy Lim, his Bantam teammate, defeated Callis. Kelly Shannon got some revenge for his Princeton teammates with a win over Trinity senior Supreet Singh. Another Trinity player, Antonio Salas, beat sixth-seeded Jim Bristow of Rochester in one of the day’s other upsets.
The top three seeded players — Harvard’s Colin West, Princeton’s Todd Harrity, and Trinity’s Sharma — all advanced, as did fifth-seeded Beni Fischer of Rochester, seventh-seeded Hywel Robinson of Yale, and eighth-seeded Vikram Malhotra also advanced to the round of sixteen, which was being played into the evening.
In the Molloy Cup (men’s “B” Division), Robby Berner, Rishi Jalan, C.J. Plimpton, Ethan Buchsbaum, Matt Domenick, Danny Greenberg, Oscar Lopez, Zeke Scherl, Peter Sopher, Robbie Maycock, Naishadh Lalwani, Jason Michas, Arjun Gupta, Reinhold Hergeth, Christian Henze, and David Pena all advanced to the round of 16.
CollegeSquashAssociation.com will continue to follow the action at the 2010 Men’s and Women’s Individuals all weekend long.
New Haven, CT — Harvard came so close last year. They came within a single match of capturing the National Title, losing 4-5 to Princeton. Today, the Crimson achieved all of their goals and have clinched the 2010 Women’s College Squash Association National Team Championship with a victory over the University of Pennsylvania with several matches left to be played.
