Play begins Friday in the 2018 College Individual Nationals with 160 of the top college players from around the country. The event will be hosted at George Washington University and Squash on Fire in Washington, DC. The players represent thirty-two men’s programs and thirty women’s programs.

The tournament consists of ten draws of sixteen players each, led by the Pool and Ramsay divisions which will determine the men’s and women’s national champions, respectively. There are four Molloy division draws (Men’s B) and four Holleran division draws (Women’s B); the winner of each will earn Second Team All-American honors.

In the Ramsay division, Reeham Sedky of Penn enters as the No. 1 seed after finishing the team season with an undefeated record for the second year in a row. Sedky’s only loss last season occurred in the final of this event where she lost to Georgina Kennedy of Harvard, who will begin her title defense as the No. 3 seed in 2018. After Harvard completed a dominant team season with a fourth consecutive national title, Kennedy is joined by three of her teammates in the top flight. Harvard’s Sabrina Sobhy, a Team USA member, is seeded fourth and slated to meet Sedky if both advance to the semifinals. Rounding out the top four seeds is second-seeded Olivia Fiechter, a senior at Princeton whose only two losses this season were both at the hands of Sedky.

In the Pool Division, a last-minute withdrawal of the top seed—2017 champion Osama Khalifa of Columbia—due to injury shook up the draw and guarantees a first-time champion in the men’s event. The new first seed is Trinity’s Kush Kumar, fresh off leading the Bantams to the national team championship. Kumar is seeded to meet Saad Abouaish of Harvard in the semifinal, whom he beat in three games last weekend. On the bottom half of the draw, Princeton’s Youssef Ibrahim holds the two seed, and is seeded to meet Andrew Douglass of Penn in the semifinal; Douglass nabbed his first career win over Youssef last Sunday at the team championships.

Follow all of the action live throughout the weekend at https://csasquash.com/individualnationals2018/, including live streaming from Squash on Fire, and live scores through Club Locker for each match throughout the tournament.

Laila Samy, a Wesleyan University senior, has won the 2018 College Squash Association (CSA) Betty Richey Award—the most prestigious women’s individual honor bestowed by the organization.

The Richey Award is given annually to the women’s college squash player who best exemplifies the ideals of squash in her love of and devotion to the game, her strong sense of fairness, and her excellence of play and leadership. Betty Richey was a graduate of Radcliffe College, and a standout athlete who was named to the United States women’s lacrosse and field hockey teams multiple times. She began coaching and teaching physical education at Vassar in 1937, and over the next thirty years she launched varsity teams in women’s squash, men’s squash, field hockey, men’s tennis, and women’s tennis. Toward the end of her career she focused more of her attention on squash and was one of the founders of the women’s individual national tournament in 1965.

Samy amassed a dominant 80-1 regular season record in her career at Wesleyan, and was named a First Team All-American each of her first three years (2018 All-American status is granted after the season). She was a 2016 college individual semifinalist, and has continued to improve throughout her college career despite not competing regularly against the top-ranked teams. “Laila is one of the most talented players in college squash,” says Wesleyan head coach Shona Kerr, “[she] is a fan favorite to watch play with her incredible shot-making ability and lightning quick movement to the front of the court.”

The 2018 award represents the second consecutive year where the awardee has played for a team ranked outside of the top several programs. “To be exposed to such talent and composure on court is a treat normally reserved for those competing in the A division [Howe Cup],” remarks Kerr. Samy projects her abilities outward, however, acting as a de facto coach for teammates and as an ambassador for the college game.

Samy plans to pursue a professional career in squash after graduating from Wesleyan in the spring of 2018.

Osama Khalifa, a Columbia University senior, has won the 2018 College Squash Association (CSA) John Skillman Award—the most significant men’s individual honor bestowed by the organization.

The Skillman Award is named for John Skillman, the legendary Yale coach of 41 years, who compiled a 451-77 record and 16 national titles. Khalifa is the second Skillman winner from Columbia, following Ramit Tandon in 2015.

Khalifa is a three-time first Team All-American selection (the 2018 selections have yet to be made), and posted a 51-4 regular season record over his career at Columbia. In 2018, Khalifa led the Lions to the program’s first Ivy League crown, capturing the decisive win in 5-4 team victories over both Harvard and Penn. Khalifa was the 2017 college individual champion—the first national title for any Columbia player—and also reached the individual finals as a freshman in 2015.

Khalifa, a three-time Columbia captain, is praised for his team orientation and on-court demeanor: “I think anyone would be hard-pressed to find a negative word to say about his conduct on and off court,” praised Columbia head coach Jacques Swanepoel, “[Khalifa] has always placed the team ahead of himself. He is modest and gracious and I believe he sets a great example for all college athletes.”

The Trinity men’s team captured their 17th Men’s National Championship—the Potter Cup—in dramatic fashion with a 6-3 win. Titles were awarded across eight divisions Sunday in the final day of the College Men’s Team Nationals.

Full results are available at www.csasquash.com/mensnationals2018.

Potter Cup

Trinity College successfully defended the Potter Cup title on its home courts by defeating Harvard in a rematch of the 2017 final. The two programs are the winningest in college squash history: combined they have won 48 of the 74 national titles ever awarded. The match was contested in front of more than a thousand fans sporting blue, gold, and crimson gear.

Both teams showed competitive grit as they contested seesaw matches at the No. 3, 6, and 9 positions. James Evans, a Trinity senior with only one loss in his college career, pulled the rabbit out of the hat again with a comeback from two games down at No. 9 spot against Bradley Smith. No. 6 Ziad Sakr grabbed the second match for the Bantams in five games, and No. 3 Michael Craig completed the first-round sweep for Trinity with a four game win over Sean Hughes, 15-13 in the final game.

Harvard No. 2 Timmy Brownell stymied the Trinity momentum with a clinical three game victory over Thoboki Moholo, and Trinity put one more point on the board at No. 5 as Tom De Mulder showed no signs of fatigue from a long semifinal match, winning in three games. In the No. 4 position, Harvard’s David Ryan nudged Rick Penders of Trinity 3-2.

With Trinity needing just one more victory to capture the title, No. 8 Andrew Lee beat Harvard’s Julien Gosset in an extremely close five game match to close out the team win.

The victory marks the 17^th national championship for Trinity, all won in the last 20 years.

Hoehn Cup

George Washington collected the most significant win in the history of its men’s program, beating Hoehn top seed Yale 6-3. The win is GWU’s first over Yale in program history.

The first round of matches set the tone for the Colonials. GWU won all three matches, including #3 Oisin Logan overcoming an 11-1 third game loss to beat Max Martin in four, and #9 Juan Laguna coming back from two games down to defeat James Losty. Yale held the line in the second round, with Yohan Pandole beating Billy Berner and at No. 8 and Harrison Gill earning a hard-fought victory against GWU’s Jamie Oakley at No. 2—putting Yale within range at 4-2 down in the team score. In the final round, however, GWU’s Julian Jervis (#7) and Salim Khan (#4) each captured tight matches to earn the overall win.

The title marks the first Hoehn Cup in program history for GWU, and will result in a record-high No. 9 end-of-season ranking.

Summers Cup

Top seed Dickinson defeated three-seed Franklin & Marshall 5-4 to take the Summers Cup crown, repeating the score line of the regular season match between the two teams.

F&M got off to a strong start, taking two of the first three matches including a comeback at No. 9 where F&M’s Jack McCord overcame a 2-1 deficit to Dickinson’s Zachary Hollander. Dickinson brought back the momentum in the second round to even the overall score 3-3, where the Red Devils then gathered wins from No. 4 Sergio Martin and No. 7 Osuman Imoro in the final round to take the first Summers Cup for Dickinson. They will end the season ranked No. 17, the highest in the young program’s history.

Conroy Cup

The Conroy Cup final produced some of the most exciting squash of the day as top seed Bowdoin and two seed Hobart squared off. Hobart had won the regular season matchup 5-4, but Bowdoin flipped that result to take the title 5-4.

Bowdoin jumped out to a 2-1 lead after the first round of matches, but Hobart leveled the overall score in the second round, including a tight four-game win at No. 5 for Jack Shannon over Bowdoin’s Gannon Leech. Going into the final set of matches and each team needing two wins to grab the title, Hobart No. 1 Josh Oakley and Bowdoin No. 7 Drew Clark each took their matches in three games, leaving the No. 4 position as the deciding match. Hobart’s Divine Wing won the first two games, but Tyler Shonrock of Bowdoin roared back to take the final three and bring the Polar Bears their second Conroy Cup in school history.

Chaffee Cup

Top seed Fordham had beaten three seed NYU 5-4 in their last match in the regular season, and the final proved to be equally close. In the first set of matches, NYU’s Bradford Sunderland (No. 3) and Karan Kochar (No. 6) each survived a two-game deficit to achieve comeback wins in five. Fordham No. 9 Will Beatrez attempted a similar feat at No. 9 but fell just short, losing the final game to NYU’s Michael Kumar and giving NYU a 3-0 overall lead. NYU rode that early momentum to a 6-3 victory, with No. 4 Ashad Hajela sealing the team win.

Serues Cup

Northwestern lived up to the top seeding as it defeated third seed Boston College to win a

first Serues Cup. After jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the first round, Northwestern’s Shikar Soni beat Matthieu Tapolsky of Boston College 11-9 in the first game at the No. 8 position to secure the overall victory. Northwestern continued the momentum into the third set of matches, bringing the final score to 8-1.

Hawthorn Cup

After splitting their regular season matches, second seed Richmond upset top-seeded North Carolina 6-3 to capture its first Hawthorn Cup. After winning two of the matches in the first round, Richmond gained a key win at No. 5 as Rick McRae beat George Schmidt 11-9 in the fifth game—after losing the fourth 18-16—to lock up the overall win.

H Division

Johns Hopkins won the H Division title 5-4 despite a late comeback push from finalist

Vanderbilt. The match was close throughout, with only two of the nine matches ending in three games. Entering the final round, Hopkins led 4-2, necessitating Vanderbilt to win all remaining matches. Vanderbilt captured the No. 1 and No. 7 positions, but Hopkins No. 4 Preston Coffin won a four-game match against Jason Outcalt to secure the title.

The Men’s College Team Nationals fielded semifinals in eight divisions on Saturday, setting up an exciting slate of finals matchups for Sunday.

Follow full results and play throughout the weekend at www.csasquash.com/mensnationals2018 including live streaming and live scores through Club Locker.

Potter Cup

In front of a packed home crowd, top-seed Trinity faced a St. Lawrence team which looked to be playing its strongest squash of the season so far. Though it looked in doubt at points through the match, the Bantams found a way to maintain their undefeated season with a 5-4 win.

St. Lawrence started off strong in the first round, with four-game wins by No. 6 Belal Nawar and No. 3 Moustafa Bayoumy putting the Saints on the board. Trinity’s James Evans won in three games to bring the overall score to 2-1 for St. Lawrence. That total was pushed to 3-2 as the teams split the No. 2 and 8 matches, but one of the key turning points of the day occurred at No. 5 between Trinity’s Tom De Mulder and Lenard Puski of St. Lawrence. Puski took the second and third games 11-9 and 12-10 to grab the lead but De Mulder shocked Puski 11-0 in the fourth before grinding out a 11-8 win in the fifth, bringing the overall total to 3-3. Meanwhile, Trinity No. 7 Omar Allaudin dominated the fourth and fifth games to complete a comeback at No.7 to bring the Bantams to within one match of the final. Kush Kumar captured that match at No. 1 in three games—including a dominant 11-0 second—and put Trinity in the final where it will defend the 2017 Potter Cup title.

Trinity will face No. 3 seed Harvard, who overcame a 5-4 regular season loss to No. 2 Columbia by winning the semifinal 6-3. Harvard set the tone early, winning all first round matches in three games. This set up the opportunity for Harvard to close out the match by winning two of the 2, 5 or 8 positions. At No. 5, Harvard’s Sam Scherl controlled play against Arhum Saleem to take the match in three games, and Harvard No. 8 Julien Gosset closed out the overall match in four games against Krish Kapur. Columbia took two matches in the final round—including a 3-1 win by defending college individual champion Osama Khalifa over Saadeldin Abouaish.

The Harvard-Trinity final will be a rematch of the 2017 contest, where Trinity won 5-4 in a dramatic match on Harvard’s courts.

Hoehn Cup

Top seeds Yale and George Washington each put in sharp performances to advance to the Hoehn Cup final. Yale faced Brown, which was coming off an upset win over fourth seeded Drexel on Friday. Brown had a chance to build momentum in the first round after Blake Gilbert-Bono defeated Thomas Kingshott in five games at No. 6, but Yale’s Max Martin put his team up 2-1 overall with a five-gamer of his own over Andrew Wei at No. 6. Yale then swept the second and third round matches to take the overall result 8-1.

Two seed George Washington made efficient work of a talented Western Ontario team, winning 9-0. Looking to the final, the Colonials will aim to upend their regular season result against Yale, which they lost 7-2 but were on the losing end of several five game matches that could have swung the other way.

Summers Cup

Summers Cup top seed Dickinson earned a position in the final by overcoming Middlebury 6-3. The result hinged on tight matches in the bottom three positions, and Dickinson was able to win each, highlighted by a comeback from 2-0 down by Tanay Murdia over Thomas Wolpow.

No. 3 seed Franklin & Marshall reversed a 7-2 regular season loss to Bates by defeating the Bobcats 5-4 in the second Summers Cup semifinal. Bates captured two of the first round matches, but F&M came roaring back as it won all second round matches to take a 4-2 overall lead. F&M No. 1 Sanjay Jeeva then iced the win for the Diplomats with a 3-0 over Mahmoud Yousry.

Conroy Cup

Top seeds Hobart and Bowdoin will contest the Conroy Cup final on Sunday. Hobart relied on strength at the top of the lineup as it captured positions 1-6 on the way to a 6-3 victory. Bowdoin defeated a Haverford team riding momentum from a Friday upset over No. 3 seed Hamilton, however, the Bears entered the final round of matches up 4-2, and captured three tight matches in the final set to round out the victory 7-2.

Hobart narrowly defeated Bowdoin 5-4 in their regular season match in early December.

Chaffee Cup

A first-time Chaffee Cup champion will be crowned on Sunday, as Fordham and NYU advanced through their respective semifinals. Fordham lost only the top position—an 11-9 in the fifth win for Denison’s Sherief Shahin over William Pantle—but had to compete hard to capitalize lower in the lineup with five game wins in the first round of matches by No. 3 Henry Rosenberg and No. 6 Michael Ferrick.

The Fordham team will face NYU, whom they narrowly beat 5-4 in their last meeting on January 21. NYU upset No. 2 seed Bucknell in the semifinal, a seesaw match that saw Bucknell grab two of three matches in the first round, then NYU do the same in the second and third rounds of matches.

Serues Cup

Northwestern defended its top seeding in the Serues Cup by advancing past Duke 6-3. Northwestern’s Anthony Bergren-Salinas thwarted a comeback attempt by Duke’s Alexander Newhouse, winning 11-9 in the fifth game at the No. 1 position.

Northwestern will face a Boston College team looking to claim its second Serues title. Boston College topped Boston University 7-2 in a match that included perhaps the most exciting set of results of the day on the top-3 court—BC’s Matthew Bell came back from 2-1 down at No. 3; BU’s Parker Tonissi won 12-10 in the fifth at No. 2, and BC’s Ryan Ashmore won 14-12 in the fifth at No. 1.

Hawthorn Cup

It will be an all-southern affair in the Hawthorn final as top seed North Carolina will take on second-seeded Richmond. North Carolina defeated Notre Dame 7-2 in the semifinal, while Richmond scraped by UC-Berkeley 5-4. The Hawthorn title will be first for either team.

H Division

Johns Hopkins and Vanderbilt each went undefeated in round robin pool play, and will contest the H division final at Trinity on Sunday morning.

The Men’s College Team Nationals kicked off at four locations on Friday with action across eight divisions. Follow full results and play throughout the weekend at www.csasquash.com/mensnationals2018 including live streaming and live scores through Club Locker.

Potter Cup

In the opening pair of Potter Cup quarterfinals, No. 3 Harvard faced No. 6 Penn, and No. 4 St. Lawrence faced No. 5 Dartmouth. The regular season Harvard-Penn match had ended 5-4 for Harvard, and Penn hoped for a quick start in Friday’s contest that would place pressure on the higher seeded Crimson. At one point in the first round, the No. 3 and No. 9 matches sat a 1-1 in games and tied at 10-10 in the third, while Penn won the third game at No. 6 to extend the match. Play shifted favorably to Harvard from that point forward, however, as they captured each match to go up 3-0 overall. Harvard carried that momentum to a sweep of the No. 2, 5 and 8 matches all in three games to secure the overall win. Penn won at No. 1 and No. 7 in the third round to bring the final score to 7-2.

St. Lawrence put in a strong 9-0 performance against Dartmouth as it advanced to the semifinal. Moustafa Bayoumy captured a key first-round win at No. 3 over Matthew Giegerich in five games, while No. 9 George Willis came back after losing the first game to Reg Anderson. The Saints continued to keep the pressure up on Dartmouth on their way to the sweep, and will fight on Saturday to reach the second Potter Cup final in school history.

In the second round of quarterfinals, No. 2 seed Columbia faced Rochester while No. 1 Trinity faced Princeton. Trinity delivered a focused performance on home courts, winning 8-1 and dropping no games in the two through eight positions. In the first set of matches, Trinity No. 9 Aryaman Adik came back to win in four games after losing the first, helping the Bantams start off 3-0. The only match won by the Tigers—freshman Youssef Ibrahim beating Kush Kumar at No. 1—came after Trinity had already locked in the team win.

A resurgent Rochester team pushed hard for the upset against Columbia but fell just short, 6-3. Rochester opened well at No. 9 with Rodrigo Porras beating Mac Awalt 3-1, but Columbia grabbed the lead after the first round with wins at No. 6 by Adham Madi and by No. 3 Seif Attia in a four game win over Ricardo Lopez where Attia grabbed the first two games 15-13 and 14-12. Columbia chipped away another two wins in the second round of matches, though Rochester’s Matthew Toth kept the overall match alive with a gritty comeback from 2-1 down. Columbia proved too strong in the final round, however, with Robin Singh Mann securing the overall win at No. 7 for the Lions.

Hoehn Cup

Brown achieved the only upset of the day in the Hoehn Cup as it took down fourth-seeded Drexel in a match that came down to the final round. The quarterfinal was expected to showcase Drexel’s talent at the top of the lineup against Brown’s depth, and it almost played to script. At No. 5, Drexel’s Nat Fry came back from 2-1 down to win in five, while Brown’s Blake Gilbert-Bono did the same for his team at No. 6. Drexel won positions two through five, while Brown won positions six through nine; the key result for Brown came at No. 1 where Thomas Blecher upset Drexel’s Bransten Ming.

Facing Brown in the semifinal will be Hoehn top-seed Yale, which advanced past Navy 7-2. Thomas Kingshott stopped the Midshipmen’s early momentum with a five-game win at No. 6 over Dylan Sweeney.

In the bottom half of the draw, three seed Western Ontario made it past Virginia 7-2, highlighted by Western No. 4 Brett Schille winning in five games after losing a fourth game that was the one of the longest of the day—18-16. Second-seeded George Washington open captured three tight matches in the first round to set the table for a 7-2 win against Cornell, and the Colonials will take on Western for the first time this season in Saturday’s semifinal.

Summers Cup

Top seed Dickinson lost two matches in the first round at No. 3 and No. 9, but swept the remaining seven positions to take the first quarterfinal of the day 7-2. Dickinson will face Middlebury, who upset Williams 6-3 in one of the closest team matches of the tournament so far. In the second round of matches, Williams No. 8 Andrew Litvin kept his team in contact by winning the fifth game against Middlebury’s Thomas Wolpow 24-22 in the fifth—the most points in a single game of the entire college squash season.

Third seed Franklin & Marshall was pushed by MIT, but moved on with a 6-3 victory that was secured by five game wins in the final round by Ricardo Machado at No. 7 and Sanjay Jeeva at No. 1. F&M will meet Bates in the semifinal, who looked sharp in an 8-1 win against NESCAC rival Colby. Bates was propelled by a first-round five-game win by Anirudh Nambiar over Chase Holding in the No. 6 position.

Conroy Cup

In the top half of the Conroy division, the top seeds advanced with No. 1 Hobart defeating Stanford 9-0 and Tufts beating Connecticut College 7-2. Tufts managed to win each of the three five-game matches as well as each of the three four-gamers on the way to a semifinal berth.

Both matches on the bottom half came down to 5-4 results, with Haverford upsetting third seed Hamilton, and second seed Bowdoin defeating Wesleyan. Haverford held off a late Hamilton surge with a 12-10 fifth game win at No. 7 by Haverford’s Thomas Kaye in the final round, while Bowdoin swept the second-round of the matches to turn the momentum on the way to the victory.

Chaffee Cup

Top-seeded Fordham advanced to the Chaffee Cup semifinal with a 7-2 win over Northeastern, winning with depth as they swept the bottom seven positions. Fordham will face Denison, who upset four seed Georgetown 7-2 on the strength of wins in tight matches in positions seven through nine including a five-gamer for Denison No. 8 George McLanahan.

In the bottom half quarterfinals, two seed Bucknell earned a workmanlike win over the University of Chicago 7-2, showcasing depth in the lineup by winning the bottom six positions. Bucknell will face NYU in the semifinals, which upheld its third seed beating Bard 6-3. Bradford Sunderland captured the early momentum for NYU 11-9 in the fifth over Pranjal Ghate at No. 3.

Serues Cup

The top three seeds in the Serues Cup—Northwestern, Boston University and Boston College, respectively—all won by comfortable margins to advance to the semifinals.

Duke and Bryant contested the tightest Friday match in the division, with the Blue Devils winning 5-4. Bryant made a charge in the final round by winning at No. 1 and No. 7, but Duke #4 Charlie Niebanck held off Jonathan Lewis to secure the team win.

Hawthorn Cup

Hawthorne top seed North Carolina advanced with a strong 9-0 win over Siena, and will face Notre Dame in the semifinals after the Irish beat Lafayette 7-2.

On the bottom half of the draw, Cal Berkeley moved past Swarthmore 7-2 as they swept the bottom six positions. Cal Berkeley will face Richmond, who were led by a comeback from two games down by No. 1 William Remsen over Colgate’s Tom Sneeringer.

H Division

Play in the H division opened with a battle of southern schools, as Vanderbilt defeated Sewanee 8-1. Round robin play will kick off fully on Saturday.

The matchups are now released for the 2018 College Men’s Team Nationals, to be hosted in Hartford, CT at Trinity College, Wesleyan University, the Loomis Chaffee School, and the Westminster School, February 23-25, 2018.

All draws and live streaming of showcase courts are available on the Men’s Team Nationals page. Follow live scores on Club Locker for every match throughout the weekend by using your US Squash login or creating a free account.

62 teams from around the country will attend the championships and compete across eight divisions: The Potter Cup (teams ranked No. 1-8)—which determines the national team champion; Hoehn Cup (9-16), Summer Cup (17-24); Conroy Cup (25-32); Chaffee Cup (33-40), Serues Cup (41-48), Hawthorn Cup (49-56), and H Division (57-62).

The Potter Cup will showcase exceptional parity, with multiple teams having a legitimate shot at bringing home a national title. Trinity College earned the top seed after an undefeated regular season, and will look to defend its 2017 national championship on home courts. Trinity will face the Princeton men in the quarterfinals, who return to the Potter Cup for the first time since 2013. On the same half of the draw, four seed St. Lawrence will face Dartmouth; St. Lawrence is targeting its fourth-consecutive national semifinal.

Columbia is the two seed in the Potter draw and will face Rochester in the quarterfinals. Columbia has only one loss on the year—to Trinity—and captured its first Ivy League title in program history this season, while Rochester appears to be rounding into form with strong results leading into the weekend. In the other quarterfinal on the bottom half of the draw, No. 3 Harvard takes on Penn. In the regular season match on February 4, the Crimson narrowly edged the Quakers 5-4.

In the Hoehn Division, Yale enters as the top seed, facing a Navy team it defeated 7-2 in the regular season. George Washington, seeded second, will face Cornell in the bottom half of the draw as the Colonials start their bid for a first Hoehn Cup title. The University of Virginia, in its first year as a varsity program, will make its inaugural appearance in the Hoehn Cup.

Dickinson will be top seed in the Summers Cup—its highest-ever ranking leading into the team nationals—and will face Amherst in the quarterfinals. Two seed Bates, the 2016 Summers champion, looks to book its place in the semifinal against NESCAC rival Colby on Friday.

The Conroy Cup features the highest-ranked club program—Stanford—playing top seed Hobart in the first round. Wesleyan will attempt to take advantage of home-court advantage as is faces second-seeded Bowdoin.

Fordham and Bucknell enter the Chaffee Cup as the top-ranked teams; if the squads make the final Fordham will need to flip a regular season 5-4 loss to uphold it’s No. 1 seed.

The Serues Cup is led by No. 1 seed Northwestern, who face Vassar in the quarterfinals. The bottom half of the draw has a distinctly Boston feel, with Boston College facing Babson and Brandeis playing Boston University.

The Hawthorn Cup and H division showcase the college game’s growing geographical diversity, including teams such as North Carolina, University of California-Berkeley, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, and Minnesota.

Titles were awarded across five divisions Sunday in the final day of the College Women’s Team Nationals at Harvard University and MIT. The Harvard women’s team captured the Women’s National Team Championship—the Howe Cup—in spectacular fashion with a 9-0 finals win over Trinity.

Full results are available at www.csasquash.com/womensnationals2018.

Howe Cup

Harvard University entered the Howe Cup undefeated in 50 matches and having won three consecutive titles. When play was completed, the team had surpassed even the exceptionally high expectations placed on it, defeating each opponent in the tournament 9-0 and dropping only six individual games in the process. The championship brings Harvard its 18^th Howe Cup—a college record surpassing Princeton’s 17.

In the first round of matches—positions 3, 6 and 9—Julia Le Coq of Trinity fell Kayley Leonard in a tight match at No. 3 with Leonard pulling out a 3-1 win with a 13-11 fourth game. Harvard No. 9 Hannah Craig and No. 6 Sue Ann Yong each won in three games to complete the first-round sweep.

The second round saw Harvard consolidate the lead with four game wins by No. 8 Sophie Mehta over Akanksha Salunkhe and No. 5 Amelia Henley over Vanessa Raj.

In the final set of matches, Harvard completed the 9-0 feat with wins a sharp performance by 2017 college individual champion Georgina Kennedy over Richey Award finalist Raneem Sharaf at the No. 1 position.

The numbers speak for themselves; the win brings Harvard’s streak to 53 consecutive matches, and caps a season in which the Crimson only lost three individual matches in 15 total contests. This Harvard team will go down as one of the most dominant squads in college squash history.

Kurtz Cup

The Kurtz Cup final featured top seed Drexel against second-seeded Dartmouth. The teams contested the Kurtz final in both 2016 and 2017, with Dartmouth winning 5-4 in each of those encounters. The Drexel women turned the tide in 2018, capturing their first Kurtz Cup title.

Dartmouth battled through the lower half of the lineup, showcasing its ladder depth with gritty five-game wins at the 7, 8 and 9 positions. At No. 7 and 8, Ellie Gozigian and Emma Roberts of Dartmouth held off comebacks by Stephanie Ryan and Apoorva Addepalli, and Zainab Molani came back from 2-1 down against Emma Macgillivray of Drexel.

Drexel captured key matches in the middle two positions to push the momentum in its favor, with Fiona Power (No. 6) and Ona Prokes (No. 5) each winning in four games against Dartmouth’s Julia Potter and Janel Gaube, respectively. Drexel secured the title with their strength at the top, sweeping positions 1 through 4 with No. 1 Anna Hughes coming back from 2-0 down against Dartmouth’s Anne Blasberg.

Walker Cup

Top seeded Dickinson looked to take home its first Walker Cup as the team faced three seed Bates, the 2016 Walker Cup champion. Bates continued its surge through the second half of the season, however, upsetting Dickinson with a dominant 7-2 performance in the final.

Dickinson got its teeth into the match in the first round, with No. 9 Abbie Winger taking a four-game match over Cata Robert. Bates still gained a 2-1 overall lead after the first round, and then consolidated the team win going 3-0 in the second round of matches with wins by Katie Bull (No. 8), Maeve O’Brien (No. 5) and Luca Polgar (No. 2). The Bobcats then captured two of the final round matches to bring the final tally to 7-2.

Epps Cup

The most closely contested final of the day occurred in the Epps Cup, where William Smith upset top seeded Bowdoin 5-4.

Bowdoin found success in the opening three matches, with a win by Natasha Belsky at No. 6 and a very close five-game result for Lex Horwitz over Joana Pacheco of William Smith. The second round of matches swung the momentum back to William Smith, with Karina Lazaro winning at No. 8 and Madison Bradley executing a comeback from 2-0 down against Zoe Wood, evening the overall match score at 3-3 going into the final round.

Wins by William Smith’s Djeneba Ballo at No. 7 and Bowdoin’s Diya Chopra at No. 4 brought the team score to 4-4, with the No. 1 match still on court. William Smith’s Gabrielle Fraser fought off a strong challenge from Lindsey Bindra of Bowdoin to take the match in four games, clinching the third Epps Cup title for William Smith.

E Division

The E division final was a Boston showdown between top seed Boston College and three seed Northeastern. Both teams entered in sharp form, winning their respective semifinals 9-0. In the final, Northeastern proved to be too strong as it garnered the title 7-2.

Northeastern was led by five-game wins for Malia Bow (No. 8) and Maggie Markgraf (No. 6), as well as a win at No. 4 by Jessica Qiu over Grace Tregidgo that included an 18-16 game—the second longest of the tournament.

The E championship is the first for the Northeastern women’s team in any division.