University of Pennsylvania receives the 2020 Sloane Award for Team Sportsmanship (l to r): Head Coach Gilly Lane, Captains David Yacobucci and Andrew Douglas, and CSA Executive Director & League Commissioner David Poolman (photo: Michael T. Bello)
The University of Pennsylvania men’s squash team and Head Coach Gilly Lane earned the 2020 Sloane Award for men’s team sportsmanship. This award was announced on Sunday, March 1, prior to the Potter Cup Final during the CSA National Collegiate Men’s Team Championships at Harvard University. This is the first time that the University of Pennsylvania has earned this award.
The Quakers finished the 2019-2020 season ranked second in the country. Entering the Men’s Team Championships as the 3-seed, Penn navigated its way to its first ever Potter Cup final appearance by defeating No. 6 Yale in the quarterfinals and pulling off a 6-3 upset victory over the 2-seed, Trinity College, in the semifinals. Penn fell to the top overall seed and defending champion Harvard University in the final, finishing as the runner-up.
“We are so proud to be the recipient of the 2019-2020 Sloane Award,” said Lane. “Being recognized by your peers for this honor is truly humbling, and I couldn’t be prouder of how the student-athletes represented our university this year. While it’s great to win squash matches, it’s even more important to play the game the right way, and I was continually proud of how our players handled themselves during their matches throughout the season. They represent everything I want our program to be about.”
The Sloane Award is given annually to the men’s team exhibiting a high level of sportsmanship. The team characteristics this award honors may be best described in the words of former Williams coach, Clarence Chaffee: “a sense of esprit de corps, of sportsmanship, of hard but fair play, of being gracious in victory and defeat, and enjoying the camaraderie and pride of being part of a team.” Coaches discussed with their players which team they felt is deserving of the award. Coaches were then polled for nominations and then voting was conducted online leading up to the team championships.
An award for team sportsmanship was first given in 1981. The team that won the award that year — Williams College — was coached by Sean Sloane. A nationally ranked hardball player, Sloane had been coaching both squash and tennis at Williams since the 1970s, and his teams were known for their spirit and sportsmanship. Sloane eventually left Williams to serve as the Director of the USTA’s Education and Recreation Program, but when he returned to coaching in 1997 at Haverford College, his teams continued to be recognized for their sportsmanship. The CSA renamed the award in Sloane’s honor in 2005.
Brown University and University of Western Ontario were the other two team finalists up for the 2020 Sloane Award.
Brown University accepts the 2020 Chaffee Award for Team Sportsmanship (l to r): Assistant Coach Adrian Leanza, Senior Captains Scarlett Bergam, Isabel Young, and Hannah Seckendorf, Head Coach Stuart leGassick, and Executive Director & League Commissioner David Poolman (photo: Michael T. Bello)
The Brown University women’s squash team and Head Coach Stuart leGassick earned the 2020 Chaffee Award for team sportsmanship. The award winner was announced on Sunday, February 23 during the final day of the CSA National Collegiate Women’s Team Championships at Yale University. This is the third time that Brown has won this award, as they also won in 1997, 2001, and 2014.
The Bears finished the 2019-2020 season ranked twelfth in the nation. Entering Championship weekend as the 4-seed in the Kurtz Cup, Brown won their opening round match-up against 5-seed Williams College in a tight 5-4 contest, before falling to top-seeded Dartmouth College in the semifinals. Brown finished in fourth place in the Kurtz Division.
“What a wonderful group of athletes Adrian and I are privileged to work with,” says leGassick. “They played hard all season in practice and match play – and always had a positive attitude. They are thrilled to be recognized in this way”.
The Chaffee Award is given annually to a women’s team coach whose team has demonstrated the qualities of sportsmanship, teamwork, character, and improvement. Coaches discussed with their team which team they felt is deserving of this award based on those qualities. Coaches then submitted their nominations and voting took place online leading up to the Team Championships.
In 1987, the women’s squash team at Williams College donated the award in honor of the college’s former coach, Clarence C. Chaffee. Chaffee began Williams’s squash program in 1938, coached the school’s first intercollegiate team in 1939, and led the program until his retirement in 1970.
In the words of Jack Barnaby, the legendary coach of Harvard University and longtime friend and colleague of Chaffee: “If ever I had a favorite amongst my rival coaches it had to be ‘Chafe’… His love of competition, his unfailing sense of fair play, and the values he and his wife exemplified to all his players made him such a beloved coach that his fame went far and wide and still flourishes today. I know I speak for all the coaches of his era when I pay him tribute: We loved him, too.”
Bowdoin College, Middlebury College, and Stanford University were the other team finalists for the 2020 Chaffee Award.
Champions and finalists from the 2020 CSA National Collegiate Individual Championships (l to r): Aly Abou El Einen (Penn), Georgina Kennedy (Harvard), Marwan Tarek (Harvard), and Hana Moataz (Harvard) – (all photos: Michael T. Bello)
Georgina Kennedy and Marwan Tarek, both of Harvard University, won their respective 2020 College Squash Association (CSA) National Collegiate Individual Championships on Sunday at the University of Pennsylvania Squash Center in Philadelphia, PA. Kennedy, a senior and four-time finalist, captured her third Ramsay Cup, going out on top as one of the elites of college squash. Sophomore Tarek earned his first Pool Trophy in his first finals appearance after a 14-1 record during the season.
Hana Moataz (left) vs. Ramsay Cup Champion Gina Kennedy (right)
Kennedy, the top seed in the Ramasy Cup draw, had been phenomenal all year, losing only four individual games during the season on her way to a fourth team championship and the Betty Richey Award. Despite it being her fourth Ramsay final in four years, Kennedy’s opponent, teammate Hana Moataz, looked more comfortable as the match began. Moataz jumped out to an early lead, but Kennedy gradually settled in, pushing the first game to extra points. Kennedy ultimately prevailed 13-11 in the first, and then carried the momentum from that comeback into the second and third games. It was clear that Kennedy figured out her plan to attack Moataz midway through the first game because she rattled off two consecutive quick game wins to clinch the third Ramsay Cup of her career.
For as one-sided as the women’s final ended up being, the men’s Pool Trophy final was just as even all the way through. During the first three games, the third seed from Harvard, Tarek, and Penn’s Aly Abou El Einen stayed within only a couple points of each other. Abou El Einen earned wins in the first and third games, 11-9 and 12-10, while Tarek grabbed an extra-point win in the second, and it felt like anyone’s game heading into the fourth.
Pool Trophy Champion Marwan Tarek (right) vs. Aly Abou El Einen (left)
The Penn player jumped out to a quick lead in the fourth game – one of the biggest of the match – but Tarek changed his tactics, shortening the points and ramping up his physicality. An injury break and a few errors by Abou El Einen seemingly revitalized the Crimson player, spurring him into the game lead and then tying the match at 2-2. Both players were physically spent as the fifth game began, which led to shorter points, errors in the tin, and some looser balls away from the walls. Tarek got the better of these exchanges, extending a lead he would not relinquish. As the final ball met the tin, an victorious and exhausted Tarek collapsed to his knees on court, celebrating his maiden college squash championship.
Holleran (Women’s B) and Molloy (Men’s B) Division finals featured players aiming to clinch the final eight Second Team All-America selections. The high level of play and competitiveness on display was fantastic in all of the finals, including seven of the eight matches extending beyond three games. On the women’s side, Trinity’s Vanessa Raj captured her third Holleran Cup win and Harvard’s Eleonore Evans earned her second in as many years. Evans’s teammate Hannah Craig and Princeton rookie Caroline Spahr won their first Holleran championships each.
For the men in the Molloy Divisions, the top three teams from the Men’s Team Championships exerted their dominance with championship wins on Sunday. Trinity captured two titles through first-time winners Andrew Lee and Aly Eltokhy. Harvard’s George Crowne made a dominant run in his division to his first title over Penn’s Dillon Huang, but Yash Bhargava of Penn avenged his teammate’s loss with a Molloy title of his own.
Final Results:
Ramsay Cup (Women’s National Championship)
Georgina Kennedy (Harvard) d. Hana Moataz (Harvard) 13-11, 11-4, 11-1
Pool Trophy (Men’s National Championship)
Marwan Tarek (Harvard) d. Aly Abou El Einen (Penn) 9-11, 13-11, 10-12, 11-6, 11-5
Holleran (Women’s B) Divisions
North: Vanessa Raj (Trinity) d. Cassandra Ong (Stanford) 11-7, 11-3, 6-11, 9-11, 11-6
South: Eleonore Evans (Harvard) d. Anna Hughes (Drexel) 4-11, 11-9, 11-9, 8-11, 11-9
East: Caroline Spahr (Princeton) d. Andrea Toth (Princeton) 9-11, 11-6, 11-8, 11-8
West: Hannah Craig (Harvard) d. Emme Leonard (Princeton) 9-11, 11-6, 11-4, 11-6
Molloy (Men’s B) Divisions
North: Andrew Lee (Trinity) d. Enzo Corigliano (St. Lawrence) 6-11, 11-5, 11-6, 11-2
South: Yash Bhargava (Penn) d. Sanjay Jeeva (Franklin & Marshall) 11-9, 11-9, 9-11, 10-12, 11-6
East: George Crowne (Harvard) d. Dillon Huang (Penn) 11-5,11-9, 11-9
West: Aly Eltokhy (Trinity) d. Harrison Gill (Yale) 4-11, 11-8, 12-10, 12-10
Sivasangari Subramaniam (Cornell) vs. Hana Moataz (Harvard) – (all photos: Michael T. Bello)
An excellent day of semifinals followed an action-packed first day at the 2020 College Squash Association (CSA) National Collegiate Individual Championships in Philadelphia, PA. After a dominant team season, three Harvard players clinched national championship finals berths, with one hometown hope beating out a fourth Harvard finals candidate.
The first semifinal of the day featured two sophomores, Cornell’s Sivasangari Subramaniam and Harvard’s Hana Moataz, in a close contest throughout. Subramaniam, in her second semifinal in as many years, was eager to book another place in the final, but Moataz had other ideas. In a very closely contested match where the lead never reached more than a few points, it was Moataz who captured the critical points when it counted. Subramaniam pushed the score to extra points in all three games, but Moataz closed the door each time, earning a place in tomorrow’s final with a 3-0 win.
With the win, Moataz knew she would be facing a teammate in the final, but the remaining question was who it would be. Top seed and defending champion Gina Kennedy stepped on court to face the fourth seed, Amelia Henley. Kennedy wasted little time getting into the groove against her teammate, capturing the first game 11-4. Her momentum continued through the second and third games, never taking her foot off the pedal, ultimately earning a smooth 3-0 win.
Gina Kennedy (Harvard) vs. Amelia Henley (Harvard)
It is the first time since 2006 that the Ramsay Cup final will feature players representing the same institution. That season, Harvard teammates Lily Lorentzen and Kyla Grigg met in the final, with Lorentzen emerging victorious.
Soon after the Ramsay Division semifinals ended, the first of two Pool Division semifinal matches commenced. The top seeds had advanced in the bottom half of the draw, pitting 2-seed Miko Aijanen of Trinity College against the third seed Marwan Tarek from Harvard. In a fantastic display of the caliber and character of college squash players, Aijanen and Tarek exhibited a full arsenal of shots and athleticism. Tarek jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead, but the second game was as even as it could get. Back and forth it went into extra points, with Tarek ultimately emerging with a crucial 15-13 win to go up 2-0.
Miko Aijanen (Trinity) vs. Marwan Tarek (Harvard)
Not to be deterred, Aijanen returned to court with extra focus, keeping things close until he could pull away for an 11-8 win in game three. Game four proved to be yet another epic battle, with both players feeling the effects of their third match in two days. Tarek edged ahead late in the game, ultimately taking a lead he would not relinquish on his way to an 11-8 win and berth in tomorrow’s finals.
Aly Abou El Einen (Penn) vs. Saadeldin Abouaish (Harvard)
In the fourth semifinal of the day, Tarek’s Harvard teammate Saadeldin Abouaish prepared to face off against hometown hope Aly Abou El Einen from Penn. With both top seeds out of the top half of the draw, the fight for the remaining finals berth was wide open. Abou El Einen was the first to strike with a quick first-game win. With the game plan working and feeling comfortable on his home court, the Penn Quaker extended his lead to two games with an 11-5 second game win. Although Abouaish kept the third game closer, Abou El Einen was not to be denied, winning the third game and gatecrashing what would have been an all-Harvard finals day.
Abou El Einen is the first Penn player to reach the men’s national championship final since 1986, when Stewart Ballard played in the final against Harvard’s Kenton Jernigan.
The players competing for Second Team All-American status during tomorrow’s Holleran and Molloy Division finals are as follows:
Holleran North: Vanessa Raj (Trinity College) vs. Cassandra Ong (Stanford University)
Holleran South: Eleonore Evans (Harvard University) vs. Anna Hughes (Drexel University)
Holleran East: Andrea Toth (Princeton University) vs. Caroline Spahr (Princeton University)
Holleran West: Emme Leonard (Princeton University) vs. Hannah Craig (Harvard University)
Molloy North: Andrew Lee (Trinity College) vs. Enzo Corigliano (St. Lawrence University)
Molloy South: Sanjay Jeeva (Franklin & Marshall College) vs. Yash Barghava (University of Pennsylvania)
Molloy East: George Crowne (Harvard University) vs. Dillon Huang (University of Pennsylvania)
Molloy West: Harrison Gill (Yale University) vs. Aly Eltokhy (Trinity College)
Penn’s James Flynn (right) reaches for a ball during his monumental upset victory over the top seed, Harvard’s Victor Crouin (left; photo: Michael T. Bello)
Action from Day 1 of the 2020 College Squash Association (CSA) National Collegiate Individual Championships filled University of Pennsylvania’s Squash Center, with two rounds of matches extending throughout the day. Some key results in the men’s Pool (A) Division grabbed the headlines on the first day, while many of the women’s Ramsay (A) Division matches played closely to seed.
James Flynn, a sophomore from Penn, stepped on court this afternoon against top seed and defending champion Victor Crouin from Harvard having just been inserted into the draw the day before due to an injury to teammate Andrew Douglas. Crouin earned a quick first-game win, but Flynn gradually settled in on his home court, finding the nicks and the back corners on several occasions. His work paid off as he tied the match at 1-1 thanks to a 12-10 game 2 win.
With the crowd expecting Crouin to turn things into high gear and pull away, Flynn stuck to his game plan to perfection. He managed to keep Crouin off balance and used a deft touch to pick out crucial winners. During identical 11-8 winning games, Flynn ground out point after point, clinching a massive upset victory, which delighted the home fans and shocked neutral onlookers.
The other first round matches went in favor of the higher seeds, but with the top half of the draw now wide open, another upset transpired in the quarterfinals. Harvard’s Skillman Award finalist Saadeldin Abouaish took on the fourth seed, Princeton’s Youssef Ibrahim, with a semifinal berth on the line. In an exemplary display of squash, the match went back and forth with Abouaish taking leads of 1-0 and 2-1. Ibrahim pushed things to the brink of fifth game, but Abouaish shut the door with a match-winning 12-10 win in the fourth game.
Along with Abouaish, the other Pool Division semifinalists are the 2- and 3-seeds, Miko Aijanen of Trinity and Marwan Tarek of Harvard, and Penn’s Aly Abou El Einen – who beat teammate and upset winner Flynn in the quarters.
The only real upset of the day in the women’s A draw – the Ramsay Division – came in the quarterfinals in the match between third-seeded Lucy Beecroft of Yale and Harvard’s Hana Moataz. Moataz’s high pace and crisp ball-striking took the challenge to Beecroft, and the Harvard sophomore ultimately cruised to a 3-0 win.
1-seed Gina Kennedy from Harvard cruised to two 3-0 victories during the day to secure her fourth consecutive semifinal berth. (photo: Michael T. Bello)
Moataz is joined in the Ramsay semifinals by some familiar foes: her Harvard teammates Gina Kennedy (top seed) and Amelia Henley (4-seed) will meet in one semifinal, with Kennedy aiming for her fourth final in as many years. To meet one of them in the final, Moataz will have to overcome Cornell’s Sivasangari Subramaniam, the second seed. Subramaniam and Kennedy will be out for a repeat of last year, where they met in the final in Providence.
16 women and 16 men have also advanced to the semifinals of four B Division draws for each gender (Holleran and Molloy). Six of the eight top seeds remain alive for championships in those divisions, where the division winners will be recognized as Second Team All-America selections.
For access to the draws and links to live streams of today’s matches on courts 1 through 6, please visit the Tournament Homepage.
Harvard’s Victor Crouin and Gina Kennedy are the number one seeds in the 2020 CSA National Collegiate Individual Championships, which start play on Friday morning at University of Pennsylvania (photos: Michael T. Bello)
The 2020 College Squash Association (CSA) National Collegiate Individual Championships will begin on Friday morning at 9:00 a.m. at the University of Pennsylvania’s new Penn Squash Center in Philadelphia, PA.
All draws, live results, and live streaming of the six main courts at Penn can be found at the Tournament Homepage. The stream on Court 1, one of the two all-glass show courts in the new facility, will also have live commentary throughout the competition.
80 women and 80 men will compete across ten 16-player divisions over the course of three days starting Friday. The top draws – Ramsay Division for the women and Pool Division for the men – will feature 16 players each vying for the national championship of college squash and All-America honors. The winners of the four Holleran and Molloy (B) Divisions for each gender will be recognized as Second Team All-America selections, along with the bottom six finishers from the Ramsay and Pool draws.
Defending champions Georgina Kennedy and Victor Crouin, both from Harvard University, have earned the top seeds in the Ramsay and Pool Division draws, respectively. Kennedy will be shooting for her third Ramsay Cup championship and fourth final to cap off her illustrious college career. Crouin, who is only a sophomore, dominated the competition this season and will look to stay on track to be the next four-time winner of the Pool Trophy.
Kennedy will meet familiar foes on her quest for the championship. Second seed Sivasangari Subramaniam from Cornell reached the final in her rookie campaign last year and is seeded to meet Kennedy for the championship again. Yale’s senior captain Lucy Beecroft and Harvard teammate Amelia Henley round out the top four seeds.
If the results from the season are any indication, the 8-versus-9 match between Stanford’s Elena Wagenmans and Columbia’s Habiba Mohamed will be a first round match to watch. Several players are making their debuts in the national championship draw, including Drexel first-year teammates Karina Tyma and Alina Bushma, the first representative from University of Virginia, Emma Jinks, and host school favorite Jessica Davis.
The Pool Division draw is incredibly deep and talented, with every player having experienced success in international competitions at either the junior and senior levels. Freshman standout Miko Aijanen from Trinity College, a steady and methodical tactician, earns the 2-seed in his debut college championship event. Egyptians Marwan Tarek (Harvard) and Youssef Ibrahim (Princeton) nab the remaining two top-four seeds in the draw.
One of the many first round matches of note pits Rochester’s Ashley Davies, last season’s top seed, against host Penn’s No. 1 Andrew Douglas (editor’s note: after publication, Andrew Douglas was forced to withdraw from the competition due to injury. The draw has been reseeded). Debutants Aly Hussein and Omar El Torkey from Virginia and Veer Chotrani from Cornell will hope to channel their World Juniors experience into success at the college level. Four players from the Men’s Team Champion, Harvard, enter the draw, including Crouin, Tarek, senior Saadeldin Abouaish, and junior Samuel Scherl.
Penn’s James Flynn, Yale’s Harrison Gill, Harvard’s George Crowne, and Franklin & Marshall’s Sanjay Jeeva are the four top seeds in the Molloy (B) Division draws. The top four women in the Holleran Division draws are Yale’s Helen Teegan, Harvard’s Eleonore Evans, Trinity’s Vanessa Raj, and Princeton’s Emme Leonard.
Yale University’s Spencer Lovejoy was presented the 2020 Skillman Award by representatives of the Schiller Family Foundation in honor of Dr. Sheldon Schiller (photo l to r: Denise Schiller, Debber Schiller, Lovejoy, and Rob Schiller; credit: Michael T. Bello)
Spencer Lovejoy, the senior captain of the Yale University men’s team, was awarded the 2020 College Squash Association (CSA) Skillman Award, as voted on by the coaches of men’s varsity teams. The award was presented on Saturday afternoon prior to the start of the Potter Cup semifinals by representatives of the Schiller Family Foundation in honor of Dr. Sheldon Schiller.
The Skillman Award is given annually to a senior men’s squash player who has demonstrated outstanding sportsmanship during his entire college career while maintaining a high level of play. The nominees were evaluated according to criteria such as on-court poise and demeanor, skill level and ability in the game of squash, team play, contributions to intercollegiate squash, leadership, and cooperation with players, coaches, and tournament officials.
Lovejoy’s hard work and dedication to honing his skills has paid off with notable results on court and great progress over his college career. His results during his first three CSA National Collegiate Individual Championships illustrate the arc of success: in three years he went from a top seed in a Molloy (B) Division draw to Pool (A) Division consolation draw winner to Pool Trophy semifinalist a year ago.
His on-court accolades are eclipsed by his reputation as a great sportsman and a fair player. Revered by peers, competitors, coaches, and fans alike, Lovejoy is widely known as a player with the utmost respect for the game and a true sense of decency and fairness, even at the highest level of play.
The four-time First-Team All-Ivy selection and two-time CSA All-American earns high praise from his coaches. Yale Head Coach Dave Talbott notes that “Spencer winning the Skillman Award validates what has been such an impressive college career. He has absolutely been a standout for his fair play and sportsmanship. Spencer epitomizes what the Skillman Award represents, and his winning the award is a statement of his character on and off the court.”
Saadeldin Abouaish of Harvard University and Kush Kumar of Trinity College were the other two finalists for the 2020 Skillman Award. The award is named for John Skillman, the Yale head squash coach for 41 years.
Harvard University won the national championship, capturing the Potter Division title with a 5-0 win over University of Pennsylvania (photo: Michael T. Bello)
Harvard University won the Potter Cup on Sunday evening, earning the National Championship with 5-0 win against University of Pennsylvania. This is the second straight year that Harvard has won the College Squash Association (CSA) National Men’s Team Championship and the 27th Potter Cup in program history.
The Crimson had dominated the competition all season long, relinquishing only four individual matches during the regular season. Penn had already clinched a historic year, earning a berth in the Potter Cup final for the first time in program history, but they were hungry for more in today’s final.
With the final being played to decision and numbers 2, 5, and 9 on court first, Harvard raced out to the start it was looking for. Harvard’s No. 5 Sean Hughes was the first on the board with a 3-0 victory, but teammates Ayush Menon and Marwan Tarek followed with 3-0 wins of their own in quick succession.
The second wave of matches began with the number 1, 4, and 8 players stepping on court, potentially with the chance to clinch the championship for their team. Despite losing the first game, Sam Scherl roared back at No. 4 to capture the fourth team point for the Crimson.
That left the deciding point up to No. 1 Victor Crouin, locked in an epic battle with Penn’s Andrew Douglas, or No. 8 Adam Corcoran, who faced the resilient Wil Hagen. Each Penn player won a game to extend the match, but in the end, Corcoran pulled away from Hagen in the fourth game to clinch the championship for the Crimson.
Victor Crouin (Harvard) and Andrew Douglas (Penn; photo: Michael T. Bello)
Soon thereafter, Crouin closed out Douglas in extra points in their fourth game to earn the sixth team point for Harvard. Having started their match after Scherl’s win, Harvard’s Timmy Brownell and Penn’s David Yacobucci continued their match to completion. In a battle of seniors in their last team match, Yacobucci jumped out to a 2-0 lead. Brownell pulled one back in the third, but with all eyes on the final match on court, the Penn Quaker closed it out for the lone team win on the day.
Harvard ends the season on a 33-match winning streak and clinched its first back-to-back undefeated seasons since 1995-1997.
Stay tuned for an additional recap of the remaining division final results from Sunday at the three venues: Harvard University, MIT, and Tufts University. In the meantime, we honor the division winners – and really all of the teams – for their fantastic efforts this weekend.
Division Winners
Hoehn Cup: Columbia University (2-seed)
Summers Cup: Williams College (1)
Conroy Cup: Dickinson College (1)
Chaffee Cup: Fordham University (2)
Serues Cup: Boston University (6)
Hawthorn Cup: Lehigh University (4)
All tournament results and the live streams from the past three days of action on Harvard’s Courts 1 through 6 can be found on the Tournament Homepage.
Saturday marked the semifinal round of the 2020 College Squash Association (CSA) National Collegiate Men’s Team Championships, and for college squash fans, it did not disappoint. With the full day in the books, the finals are set for a great culmination of the men’s team season.
All results from the first two days are available via the Tournament Homepage. The live streamed video of the first two days is available through the College Squash YouTube channel and can be accessed using the links on the tournament homepage as well.
Potter Division
The semifinals of the Potter Division presented a big contrast in results, but it is hard to choose which is more impressive. Top-seed Harvard welcomed Princeton to their home courts for the second time this season, and they replicated the result in dominating fashion. The Harvard players surrendered only three games in the entire match on their way to 9-0 win.
Aly Abou El Einen (Penn) and Kush Kumar (Trinity)
In the other semifinal, 2-seed Trinity and 3-seed Penn faced off in a monumental battle. Penn jumped out to a 3-0 lead after the first wave by a razor thin margin after capturing two five-game marathons. Trinity’s big-game experience helped them persevere in the second wave, winning two out of three matches, keeping the win within striking distance. With the last wave of three matches on court at the same time, the final result was still in doubt when two of those contests entered their fifth game. Taking the bull by the horns, it was Penn’s Wil Hagen who struck first, clinching the winning team point for Penn, sending the Quakers to their first ever Potter Cup final in program history.
Nadav Raziel (Yale) and Omar El Torkey (Virginia)
One of the matches in contention for Match of the Day was the Potter consolation semifinal between Yale and Virginia. Yale appeared to be in control, jumping out to a 4-1 lead, but Virginia gradually turned the tide in their favor. Critical five-game wins at numbers 5 and 9 gave Virginia a shot, and then first-year sensation Aly Hussein completed the 5-4 comeback victory with a three-game win at number 1. Virginia will meet Rochester tomorrow for fifth place after the Yellowjackets exacted revenge on Drexel after losing to them in the regular season.
Hoehn Division
Familiar foes Columbia and Cornell will meet in tomorrow’s Hoehn Cup final after deceivingly tough victories on Saturday. After losing to Dartmouth during the regular season, Cornell was out for pay back and earned it on the backs of two five-game wins in the first two waves of matches. Cornell’s No. 5 Nicholas Goth Errington clinched the second of those marathon battles, setting up the match-winning point for teammate Veer Chotrani.
Max Finkelstein (Dartmouth) and Illia Presman (Cornell)
Columbia had a slightly more comfortable 7-2 win over third-seeded Western Ontario, but they felt the challenge all the way through the match. Despite going down 2-1 after the first wave, Columbia recovered to run off six straight match victories. Columbia won the Ivy League match-up against Cornell during the season, but as fans are finding out, the championships wipe that slate clean.
Elliott Hunt (Western Ontario) and Justin Ghaeli (Columbia)
Like the Potter Division, there was excitement in the Hoehn consolation bracket as well. Brown claimed an upset victory over George Washington, riding a hot start to a 5-4 win. Brown will meet Franklin & Marshall tomorrow, who outlasted a game MIT squad, 6-3.
Summers Division
The excitement continued all the way into the late-night session at Harvard with finals berths for the Summers Division on the line. Navy and Middlebury went toe-to-toe the entire evening, resulting in a 5-4 win for the NESCAC team from Vermont. The contest hinged on the number 5 match between Middlebury’s Nate Moll and Navy’s Ryan York. Moll fought back from 2-1 down to eek out a 12-10 game four win, then steamrolled to the match win in the fifth. Middlebury takes on familiar rival Williams in the Summers Cup final tomorrow after Williams handled the challenge from Bates, 8-1.
Jacob Ellen (Middlebury) and Michael Kacergis (Navy)
The theme of exciting matches taking place in the consolation semis continued during the evening session with both matches ending in 5-4 scorelines. Bowdoin took care of business against an injury-depleted Amherst squad, and in the final match of the night, Colby withstood a tough upset bid from Tufts.
Conroy Division
In one of the only division finals to work out according to seed, top-seeded Dickinson College and second-seeded Hamilton will meet in the Conroy Cup final tomorrow morning. Dickinson showed their strength as the number one seed, surrendering their lone loss during the second wave of matches. Hamilton had a tougher challenge on their hands with the upstart Chatham squad on the hunt for another upset. This time, however, Hamilton’s team depth and championship experience prevailed over Chatham’s momentum and enthusiasm, winning the match 6-3.
Michael Rodriguez (Conn College) and Osuman Imoro (Dickinson)
In the consolation draw, Wesleyan and California-Berkeley will face off in the fifth-place match. Wesleyan repeated their winning result from the regular season against 7-seed Haverford, while Cal prevailed over a depleted St. Lawrence side, 6-3. Cal has already clinched the title of highest ranked club team of the 2019-2020 season.
Chaffee Division
The only other division final to finish as seeded was the Chaffee Division, where 1-seed Hobart and 2-seed Fordham are set to meet for the second time this year. Hobart dispatched fifth seeded Northeastern fairly comfortably, earning an 8-1 victory in fairly short order. The only loss was a default in the number 8 position. Fordham’s winning margin of 7-2 was similar, but the road to earn the victory was much different against 3-seed New York University. Every match but one went past three games, and although NYU captured two five-game wins, Fordham overcame their city rivals in the rest of the contests.
The Chaffee consolation draw played out to its conclusion on Saturday evening, with Denison taking the fifth-place match against University of Chicago by a 6-3 margin. In the consolation playoff, Bard pulled the mini-upset against seventh seed Washington University in St. Louis. Bard went 2-1 in the last wave of matches to clinch the 5-4 win.
Serues Division
One of the Cinderella runs of the tournament could be the Serues sixth seed, Boston University, making a run to the final to face top-seeded Bucknell. BU put together a grind-it-out performance today, taking out 2-seed Georgetown by a 6-3 margin. Once again, all but one of the matches went past three games, and Boston University closed it out when it counted. Bucknell had a similar battle with 4-seed Richmond, also emerging victorious with 6-3 win, this time on the strength of the top of their lineup.
In match-ups consisting of historic college sports powerhouses, North Carolina and Stanford claimed victories over Michigan and Northwestern, respectively. North Carolina’s win over the Wolverines was particularly close, but the 5-4 win went the way of the Tar Heels in the end. Stanford overcame losses at the top two spots in the ladder to capture the 7-2 win and a spot in the fifth-place match.
Hawthorn Division
The Hawthorn Division final will have a prime spot during the late morning at Harvard tomorrow and will feature two teams with good tournament experience. Lehigh University brought ninth-seeded Lafayette’s Cinderella run to an abrupt end with a 9-0 sweep. The match of the day was the number one tilt between Lafayette’s Jack Burton and Lehigh’s Sam Ghorashi, which Ghorashi clinched with 12-10 win in the fifth game.
Second seed Vassar College will meet Lehigh in tomorrow’s final after their experience and depth carried them to a 5-4 win over Duke University. With convincing wins in four of the lower five rungs of the ladder, Vassar was able to turn the team effort into a chance to bring home some hardware tomorrow. Other winners on the day include Johns Hopkins University, Indiana University, and Swarthmore College.
