Now that the calendar has turned over to 2020, CSA student-athletes are gradually arriving back on campus in preparation for the second part of the season. The road to the 2020 championships starts over the course of the coming week with a limited slate of matches.
The second-ranked Trinity teams headline the enticing set of contests with their roadtrip south to face a trio of Mid-Atlantic Squash Conference challengers. The Bantam men face No. 9 George Washington, No. 18 Navy, and No. 5 Drexel on three successive days next week, while the women face No. 15 George Washington and No. 5 Drexel.
The Williams squads jump right into action after the holiday break by hosting the only matches scheduled for the weekend. First, Dartmouth and then NESCAC rival Middlebury visit northwest Massachusetts on back-to-back days.
Stanford’s teams play their only home matches of the season, welcoming Tufts, who make the cross-country trip for a match on Wednesday, the 8th. Additional matches include the Yale women hosting Amherst and Mount Holyoke, MIT traveling to Bowdoin, and George Washington hosting Vassar next Thursday.
The year 2020 will mark the 100th year of intercollegiate squash competition in the United States. This monumental anniversary arrives at just the right time, with the newly relaunched College Squash Association (CSA) poised to fortify the college game and lead it into a second century.
The restructured CSA has an independent board of directors and a full-time Executive Director. This leadership structure is now dedicated to creating and enforcing new regulations concerning eligibility, amateurism, and recruiting, as well as to fostering the spirit of fair play and sportsmanship.
In order to maintain this exciting momentum, however, the CSA needs assistance from interested supporters of squash. The CSA is pleased to introduce the Founding Partners Campaign, a coordinated effort to secure the near-term future of the organization. Contributions to the Campaign from donors and sponsors will help enrich the student-athlete experience and retain the Executive Director, whose focus is emphasizing fairness and consistency in college squash and expanding the opportunities to play competitive squash on college campuses.
“We are so excited to embark on the Founding Partners Campaign during the 100th year of college squash,” says John Nimick, Chair of the CSA Board of Directors. “Both domestic and international interest around the college game is at an all-time high, and we are asking for our supporters to invest in the continued growth and development of the best team-based version of the sport in the world.”
The Founding Partners Campaign offers individuals, families, and companies the opportunity to align with the passion of college squash, to enhance players’ experiences, and to amplify the vibrancy of varsity competition. Donations of all sizes are welcome, but those made with a four-year commitment at predetermined levels are eligible to be aligned with one or more of the CSA’s premier assets.
“We are so grateful for the first example of a campaign pledge and the impact it can have,” says David Poolman, Executive Director and League Commissioner of the CSA. “The Schiller Family welcomed the opportunity to present the Skillman Award in honor of their father, Sheldon Schiller, a fantastic sportsman and player. The Schillers’ support exemplifies the meaningful connection families have with college squash and how important it is to secure the future of our game.”
Founding Partners who commit to contribute to the Campaign for at least a four-year term will be featured on the CSA website for the duration of their commitment. Their initial support will also be memorialized elsewhere on the website and in CSA collaterals in perpetuity.
Please consider donating to help kick off the CSA Founding Partners Campaign. All general inquiries, as well as requests for more details about specific gifts and sponsorship opportunities, should be directed to admin@csasquash.com. General contributions can be made using this link – DONATE TO COLLEGE SQUASH ASSOCIATION – or via check made payable to Intercollegiate Squash Association, Inc.
This past summer, Bates College senior and College Squash Association (CSA) Player Advisory Committee member Graham Bonnell spent a month in The Netherlands taking squash lessons and immersing himself in the local culture and sites. He kept a blog of his experiences, which included regular lessons, local travel around the country, and participation in his first PSA competition. The CSA caught up with Bonnell at the end of the fall semester to learn more about his trip and how it has impacted his final year of college squash.
CSA: How did you decide to make this trip to The Netherlands last summer?
Graham Bonnell: There were many factors in my decision to make my trip to The Netherlands. I had learned about squash in The Hague during the previous summer, when my father, sister, and I met up with my mother who was in the middle of her two-year service as a member of the Peace Corps in Ukraine. While in The Hague, I randomly took a lesson with a coach and quickly realized how much more accessible high-level coaching was in The Netherlands than in the United States. Throughout my career as a squash player, I have been extremely disappointed by how financially inaccessible the sport is in the United States. I determined that it would actually be cheaper to pay for a flight to The Netherlands, housing, food, and a month’s worth of squash lessons than to pay for similar coaching in the United States.
CSA: What were your goals for the trip?
GB: My goals were to significantly improve as a squash player, to play in my first PSA tournament, and to enjoy the international niche community of squash.
CSA: Why did you choose The Netherlands? Could you have done this program elsewhere?
GB: The Hague is a storied location for many acclaimed squash players, including the likes of Cameron Pilley, Paul Coll, Laurens Jan Anjema, and hundreds of elite PSA players for training, league matches, or tournaments. The Netherlands’ central location is a great place for PSA players, as they can conveniently travel to other countries in Europe for league matches and tournaments. The beautiful thing about squash, however, is that it is in so many different countries around the world. I am certain that other CSA players could dedicate their own month of squash in other locations, especially Spain, the Czech Republic, Egypt, and the UK.
CSA: What did you like most about your location during the trip? What did you like least?
The Hague, Netherlands
GB: There is a lot to love about The Netherlands and The Hague specifically. If I had to choose one thing I liked the most, it would probably be the way people biked everywhere. The Dutch infrastructure for bicycle transportation is incredible, and I would love to see it emulated across cities in the United States. My daily bike commute was beautiful; I passed canals, grassy parks, and cityscapes all in a twenty-minute ride. It’s tough to think of a negative about living in The Hague, but I do know it can be hard to find an affordable rental.
CSA: What landmarks would you recommend that other visitors visit when they are where you were?
GB: I would definitely recommend biking up and down The Hague’s beaches and exploring the sand dunes. Also, my favorite place to grab a bite to eat or a coffee is at Bagels and Beans, which is a chain throughout The Netherlands.
CSA: What other favorites can you recall from your trip? Food? Drink? Mode of transportation? Daytrip?
GB: I didn’t touch on this in my blog, but towards the end of my month in The Netherlands, I took a day and a half trip to Paris, France. It was very easy to take a train from Rotterdam to Paris, and I was able to stay in a hostel in Paris for quite cheap. One of the great things about the Netherlands is its central location, so such weekend adventures were quite doable. I really liked visiting the Van Gogh museum and the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam.
CSA: What did you learn about yourself through this squash training program? Do you feel like your game improved?
GB: I feel as though my game greatly improved from training in The Netherlands for a month. Before the training program, I hadn’t received a formal lesson for my squash technique since when I was first learning to play the sport. I learned a lot about the technique of my forehand swing and realized that the way I played squash was massively inefficient. Of course, there’s only so much progress that can be made in one month, but I definitely improved.
CSA: What was your PSA competition experience like?
GB: Playing a satellite PSA tournament was a great experience. I’m still a bit salty that I lost my first-round match, but the true highlight of the tournament was meeting players from all over, including Turkey, the Czech Republic, Zimbabwe, Belgium, and Spain. My competitors’ style of play was different from what I was used to playing in the CSA. To make a gross simplification, the European players extended rallies longer and played the ball straight more.
CSA: What impact has your college squash career had on your college experience?
GB: My college squash career has had a large impact on my college experience. Excelling in squash has been a large goal of mine each year at Bates College. I’ve made lifelong friendships with my teammates who are from all over the world, and I’ve gained a lot of respect for CSA players throughout the league. The squash team at Bates has been an incredibly consistent source of happiness and personal progress throughout my college years.
CSA: What are your goals for your final season and final semester at Bates?
GB: For my final season of squash, I want my team to win some big matches. The NESCAC and the CSA are more competitive than ever this year, and I know that the squash teams at Bates can do some damage. Despite the ever-present thoughts of life after college, I want to remain in the present as much as possible and enjoy my final semester as a playing member of the College Squash Association.
CSA: Do you anticipate playing squash after graduation?
GB: At some point, my body will need a break from squash, but I definitely plan on continuing to play after graduation. I think more CSA players should consider playing professional squash after college (shoutout to all the players who are currently doing both!).
Both Drexel programs made big moves up the latest College Squash Rankings (photo: Jeff Fehn)
The College Squash Association (CSA) has updated the 2019-2020 season rankings for the final time in the 2019 calendar year. It is no surprise that, after the last few weeks of positive results, including multiple upsets of top-10 teams, both Drexel programs made the biggest changes at the top of the rankings.
The Drexel men’s and women’s team both head into the winter break in the Number 5 position of the college squash rankings, which are program bests. The men’s team leaped a monumental six spots, with the women’s team jumping three spots of their own.
Despite an equal triangle of women’s results between Drexel, Penn, and Stanford, Drexel captures the highest spot thanks to its next best victory against new No. 8 Columbia. Stanford then lands the No. 6 spot based on its head-to-head victory against Penn. Additional results during the second half of the season will impact this order as the year progresses.
The other big movers in the top 10 of either poll were the Columbia teams, which each fell slightly to No. 8 for the women and No. 10 for the men.
Brown’s victory over MIT on Saturday means they crack the top 16, swapping places with new No. 18 Navy. The battle for a top-16 women’s spot shifted as Bates (No. 17) and Franklin & Marshall (No. 18) jumped Tufts, but they all trail an idle Amherst squad.
On the men’s side, club sides New York University (No. 33) and Denison University (No. 40) moved into Chaffee Cup contention with strong results. The women’s rankings saw Bowdoin’s upset of Hamilton cause the Continentals to drop into 28th position.
The No. 11 Drexel men’s 3-0 weekend included two upsets over Top-10 teams (photo: Jeff Fehn)
On the last weekend of match play for colleges before the winter break, teams always want to finish on high note. With finals and the holidays looming, a successful weekend can really set the tone for the critical second half of the season.
No team will be riding higher heading into the break than the Drexel men, who swept three huge matches at home to close the fall season. After dispatching No. 15 St. Lawrence comfortably on Friday night, two top-10 foes awaited the Dragons on the weekend.
No. 5 Yale came calling on Saturday, but Drexel’s No. 11-ranked men came out firing, ultimately shocking the Bulldogs by a 6-3 score. Drexel’s depth proved to be the difference with the Dragons winning at positions seven through nine. Less than 24 hours later, University of Rochester’s No.6-ranked squad arrived on the heels of a tough 2-7 loss to No. 3 Penn. Drexel jumped out to a 3-1 lead after the first wave of matches and then had to hold on as Rochester came roaring back. In the end, Drexel freshman Gautam Nagpal prevailed in a very tight four-game match at No. 8 for the clincher.
In their bid to make it a clean sweep for Drexel teams, the No. 8 Drexel women fell to an experienced No. 5 Yale squad, 3-6.
Drexel was not the only team to post upsets on the weekend. Brown’s No. 18 men’s team traveled to Boston to take on No. 17 MIT, and they successfully avenged their loss in the Summers Cup championship match a season ago with a 6-3 road victory. Also, for the first time in program history, the No. 36 Bard men bested their Liberty League foes Hobart College, No. 32, by a close 5-4 scoreline.
Wesleyan University, hosting a large round robin with eight other teams present, posted some impressive results, including the women’s team winning three out of four matches on Saturday alone. Only Bates College spoiled Wesleyan’s perfect weekend with a pair of wins over the Cardinals.
In the first match of Ivy League play for both teams, Cornell welcomed Columbia for critical match-ups on Sunday. While close matches were expected for both matches, the higher ranked Columbia teams emerged unscathed with two secure victories.
Other notable results of the weekend include the second-ranked Trinity teams cruising to comfortable 9-0 victories over Bates and Colby, Tufts sweeping conference foes Bowdoin, albeit with a tight 5-4 win for the men, and the New York University and Fordham men sweeping all visitors to the Big Apple.
Full results from the weekend, as well as upcoming matches in 2020, can be found here: Women and Men.
Columbia and Brown face important matches this weekend (photo: Stuart LeGassick)
After the Thanksgiving holiday break, the last week of college squash in 2019 got started early with some mid-week match-ups.
Some Ivy League travel partners kicked off their conference season, with both Yale and Harvard teams downing their counterparts from Brown and Dartmouth, respectively. The rankings held true to form, with the closest match coming between the No. 6 Rochester men and No. 14 Cornell. Rochester, down at least one key player, escaped from Ithaca with a tight 5-4 victory.
The final weekend of action for the fall semester commences this evening with the matches clustered from Philadelphia to Connecticut. Drexel and Columbia both host matches this evening, starting a busy weekend for both squads.
The Dragons will aim to continue their hot start with upset bids against Yale on Saturday and Rochester on Sunday. Both Columbia teams face stiff challenges on Sunday when they travel to Cornell to start Ivy League play.
Two prominent rematches from last year’s National Collegiate Men’s Team Squash Championships will take place on Saturday. The No. 3 Penn men will want to hold serve at home against Rochester, while No. 17 MIT aims to maintain their upward trajectory with a match against No. 18 Brown. In another rankings-adjacent match in the Philadelphia area, the No. 29 Haverford women welcome No. 27 St. Lawrence tomorrow evening.
Both Wesleyan University and Fordham University are hosting round robin events this weekend, with teams vying to make their mark heading into the winter break. Bard, Bates, Chatham, Hobart, Vassar, and William Smith will all be at Wesleyan, while Boston College, Denison, Lehigh, NYU, and Swarthmore will be at Fordham.
As expected, the Friday evening matches got the weekend started with bang, and the action continued throughout Saturday and Sunday. Several teams outperformed their rankings and staked early claims on new program bests.
The Drexel Dragons were one of several programs to make headlines this weekend. On Friday, the No. 8 women welcomed No. 4 Stanford, who had just survived a grueling 5-4 battle across town at No. 7 Penn. Stanford jumped out to an early lead, but the Dragon women gradually crawled back into it. With the score knotted at 4-4, Drexel freshman Karina Tyma outlasted Stanford’s Elena Wagenmans in the Number 1 match in five games to clinch the victory.
Drexel’s match-winner Brooke Herring (photo credit: Jeff Fehn)
With no rest for the weary, Drexel welcomed Columbia’s higher-ranked teams on Saturday. Looking to carry over momentum from the night before, both Drexel teams came to play. The No. 11 men handled a depleted No. 7 Columbia squad with relative ease, but the women were locked in another close match with the No. 6 Lion women. This time it was Drexel’s number 4 player, Brooke Herring, who took home the match-clinching five-game victory.
For those keeping score at home, that’s four 5-4 matches between the current No. 4, 6, 7, and 8-ranked women’s teams. No. 3 Princeton women did confirm their standing as a cut above with hard-won victories against Virginia, Stanford, and Drexel this weekend.
Adding to the intrigue on the women’s side were No. 19 Franklin & Marshall and No. 28 Bowdoin. Each team won upset victories in critical early-season contests, against No. 17 Tufts and No. 23 Hamilton, respectively.
The men’s schedule had its fair share of action over the weekend as well, again with an impressive start on Friday evening. No. 17 MIT made the long trip down to Annapolis to take on No. 16 Navy in a Mid-Atlantic Squash Conference contest, with the winner having an inside track to a Hoehn (B) Division berth at the end of the season. The visiting Engineers emerged victorious this time in a close 6-3 contest that could see a repeat match-up in the end-of-season MASC Championships.
Speaking of MASC representatives, George Washington had a busy weekend as well, welcoming Penn’s teams to DC before trekking up to New York City to take on Columbia. GW’s lone victory of the weekend was a big one, with the No. 9 Colonial men upsetting No. 7 Columbia 5-4 on the road.
Staying with the “upsets in NYC” theme, Fordham’s round robin featured its few of its own. In particular, New York University upset the hosts in a tight 5-4 match and also took out previously unbeaten Washington University of St. Louis.
The CSA schedules take a well-deserved hiatus during the Thanksgiving holiday, and teams will return for one more week of action before finals and the mid-year holiday break.
Full results from the weekend, as well as upcoming matches, can be found here: Women and Men.
The second college squash rankings, released on Wednesday, will be put to the test this weekend with several matches between teams that are close in the standings.
Among the teams making their season debut this weekend, the team with the most challenging road appears to be the No. 4 Stanford University women. Making one of their customary trips out east, the Cardinal will play three matches in two days, taking on the Number 3, 7, and 8 teams in the latest rankings. After a Philadelphia doubleheader against Penn and Drexel later today, the match of the weekend pits Stanford against No. 3 Princeton at the Philadelphia Cricket Club. Stanford upset the Tigers at the College Squash Women’s Team National Championships last year, so Princeton will be on the prowl to avenge that loss.
Slightly farther south, an intriguing match-up kicks off another weekend of round robin play at the U.S. Naval Academy. This evening, No. 16 Navy welcomes No. 17 MIT in a contest that could have long-term implications for a spot in the Hoehn (B) Division of the Men’s Team Championships. MIT, the 2019 Barnaby Award winner as the most improved team of the season, will aim to carry that momentum into their upset bid.
Columbia University is another program with a tough set of matches this weekend. On Saturday, the Lions travel to Drexel for a pair of tricky match-ups. The higher-ranked Columbia men (No. 7) and women (No. 6) will look to hold their positions against the aspiring Dragons (men No. 11/women No. 8). Columbia then returns to New York on Sunday to defend home turf against George Washington University. The men’s No. 7-versus-No. 9 match-up is the headliner there.
New York City will play host to an additional set of close rankings matches. Fordham University welcomes Bard College, New York University, and Washington University of St. Louis, all of whom are closely bunched in both the men’s and women’s rankings.
Additional action is spread out all over CSA geographical territory with several other intriguing contests. Yale and Wesleyan will be hosting several teams in Connecticut who will move between venues over the course of the three days. Bowdoin, Conn College, Dickinson, Hamilton, Virginia, and Williams will all be in town on the hunt for early-season victories.
Conn College also visits Vassar College along with Haverford College for a tri-match on Saturday. Conn’s goal will be to hold serve against their lower-ranked opponents, while the No. 29-vs-30 Haverford-Vassar women’s match-up is the match of the weekend there.
Tufts University bypasses the activity in Connecticut for a date with Franklin & Marshall in south central Pennsylvania. The No. 17 Jumbos women earned a boost in the preseason rankings and are poised to support that vote against the No. 19 Diplomat women.
The College Squash Association (CSA) has published the second set of the college squash team rankings for the 2019-2020 season. Along with the varsity teams from the preseason poll, 43 club teams enter the rankings for the first time after competing in at least three matches so far this season.
Movement within the rankings was limited due to the early season schedule, but there were some notable shifts.
On the men’s side, Western Ontario’s victories over Cornell and St. Lawrence saw them jump both opponents to No. 13. Virginia and George Washington swapped places at Nos. 8 and 9 thanks to the Cavalier victory in their head-to-head match-up. Similarly, Bates fell behind No. 24 Bowdoin after the Polar Bears’ upset win. Chatham’s 8-0 start propels them to a program-best No. 31 ranking.
The women’s rankings features two slight changes from the original poll. Penn’s win over Drexel on Sunday sees the Quakers jump their neighbors into the No. 7 position. Also, William Smith’s victory over St. Lawrence bumps the Saints down to No. 27.
A successful weekend for the Georgetown women propels them to No. 31, the highest ranked women’s club team. Cal-Berkeley swept a men’s round robin in New York City to capture the highest men’s club team ranking at No. 33.
The year 2020 will mark the 100th year of intercollegiate squash competition in the United States. This monumental anniversary arrives at just the right time, with the newly relaunched College Squash Association (CSA) poised to fortify the college game and lead it into a second century.
GB: The Hague is a storied location for many acclaimed squash players, including the likes of Cameron Pilley, Paul Coll, Laurens Jan Anjema, and hundreds of elite PSA players for training, league matches, or tournaments. The Netherlands’ central location is a great place for PSA players, as they can conveniently travel to other countries in Europe for league matches and tournaments. The beautiful thing about squash, however, is that it is in so many different countries around the world. I am certain that other CSA players could dedicate their own month of squash in other locations, especially Spain, the Czech Republic, Egypt, and the UK.
GB: Playing a satellite PSA tournament was a great experience. I’m still a bit salty that I lost my first-round match, but the true highlight of the tournament was meeting players from all over, including Turkey, the Czech Republic, Zimbabwe, Belgium, and Spain. My competitors’ style of play was different from what I was used to playing in the CSA. To make a gross simplification, the European players extended rallies longer and played the ball straight more.
The second college squash rankings, 