Coaches may use the following form to apply for the CSA Scholar Athlete and Academic Recognition Awards. All applications are due by Monday, February 12.
Teams jockeyed for ranking position over a busy weekend of college competition, with only one month of regular season play remaining prior to the college team championships.
The top men’s and women’s teams—Trinity and Harvard, respectively—maintained their undefeated records with two wins each. Trinity produced workmanlike victories over No. 5 Penn 9-0 and No. 13 Navy 8-1. The Harvard women didn’t drop a match in wins over No. 19 Tufts and No. 4 Stanford despite not having Sabrina Sobhy in the lineup. Sobhy defeated two top-forty PSA players over the weekend as she qualified for the main draw in the Tournament of Champions in New York City.
The No. 4 Columbia men continued their momentum with a strong road trip to upstate New York, defeating No. 6 Rochester and No. 3 St. Lawrence on Sunday. The wins will likely establish Columbia as the new No. 2 team when the college rankings are released later this week.
The No. 2 Trinity women defeated rival No. 5 Penn 7-2 on Saturday, avenging a 5-4 loss in the 2017 national team semifinal. Trinity only has three matches remaining on their schedule, but plenty to play for in the coming week as they will aim to defend their top-3 position against No. 4 Stanford and look for an upset against Harvard.
The Drexel and Cornell men’s teams both fought off tight upset bids from lower-ranked opponents on Saturday in 5-4 wins. No. 9 Drexel topped up-and-coming No. 14 Virginia, while No. 15 Cornell defeated No. 16 Franklin & Marshall. Franklin & Marshall fell in an upset on Sunday to No. 21 Williams 6-3.
Despite losing four of the top five matches, the No. 21 St. Lawrence women pulled off a 5-4 upset against No. 20 Wesleyan by sweeping positions six through nine.
University of Rochester Senior Tomotaka Endo will lead his team in a pair of important home matches against Columbia on Saturday and Yale on Sunday.
As the second half of the college squash season continues, teams jockey for position this weekend with only one month until the beginning of the college team nationals.
The No. 6-ranked University of Rochester men’s team will host two important home matches, facing No. 4 Columbia on Saturday and No. 8 Yale on Sunday. Columbia narrowly defeated Rochester last season 5-4 in a match where Rochester couldn’t convert several match points that would have changed the overall result. Yale and Rochester have developed a dramatic rivalry over the past decade, including Yale’s 5-4 win to capture the 2016 national championship.
Trinity will host the University of Pennsylvania for men’s and women’s teams on Saturday. The No. 1-ranked Trinity men will look to stay undefeated against No. 5 Penn, who have recently posted wins over other top-eight teams Rochester and Yale. The No. 5 Penn and No. 2 Trinity women aim to bounce back from tight losses last week against Yale and Princeton, respectively.
In other top-five women’s action, No. 4 Stanford will take on top-ranked Harvard on Sunday as one of four matches over two days. The Cardinals will also play Cornell, Williams, and Dartmouth.
Amherst and Smith will host a large set of teams for round robin play Friday through Sunday. One of the highlight matches will be No. 17 Dickinson women looking to upset No. 16 Amherst, a team that Dickinson has never beaten in the short history of its varsity program. On the men’s side in the round robin, the Naval Academy (No. 13) has a busy weekend as it defends its ranking position against Williams, Amherst, and Dickinson, while also traveling to top-ranked Trinity.
Columbia No. 1, Senior Osama Khalifa, clinched the deciding match against Harvard in Columbia’s 5-4 upset win Sunday. Courtesy: Columbia University Athletics/Maryam K. Hassan.
College squash featured a furious weekend of competition as the majority of teams returned to campus from winter break and team training trips.
The Columbia men captured their first-ever victory over No. 2-ranked Harvard on Sunday, winning 5-4 at home. Columbia—currently ranked No. 4—jumped out to an early 4-0 lead, and closed out the match in the second round at the top position when reigning college individual champion Osama Khalifa outlasted Harvard sophomore Saadeldin Abouaish 11-9 in the fifth game. In the women’s match, No. 1-ranked Harvard controlled play against Columbia 9-0, dropping only one individual game in the match.
Saturday’s Ivy league showdown between Yale and Penn played out as close as it appeared it would on paper. In the women’s match, No. 6 Yale upset No. 5 Penn 5-4, the first win for the Yale women over Penn since 2011. The men’s match tilted the opposite way, as No. 5 Penn held off No. 8 Yale 5-4. On Sunday, Yale traveled to Princeton, where the No. 3 Princeton women and No. 7 men both notched 8-1 victories.
On Friday, Middlebury scraped out 5-4 wins against Bates in both the women’s and men’s matches. The men’s win was an important NESCAC league result for No. 19 Middlebury over No. 18 Bates, while the No. 15 Middlebury women barely avoided a major upset at the hands of No. 29 Bates. The Bates men captured a close win of their own 5-4 over No. 21 Williams on Saturday.
In other action over the weekend, the No. 29-ranked Connecticut College men upset No. 26 Hamilton 5-4, and Hamilton held off No. 30 Wesleyan 5-4. On the women’s side, No. 21 St. Lawrence held off an upset bid from No. 26 Bowdoin 5-4.
Penn No. 1 Reeham Sedky aims to continue her undefeated season in matches against Yale and Brown this weekend (courtesy: Penn Athletics)
College squash will see a full slate of competition this weekend as students return to campus from winter break.
Top-ten action is headlined by Yale hosting Penn on Saturday and Harvard traveling to Columbia on Sunday. The No. 5-ranked Penn women, led by 2017 college individual finalist Reeham Sedky at the top position, will look to hold off No. 6 Yale. The undefeated Yale men, ranked No. 8, will face their toughest test of the season so far against No. 5 Penn, who look to continue the positive momentum gained with a 5-4 win over Rochester this past week.
The No. 4 Columbia men are coming off a tough 6-3 loss to top-ranked Trinity on Wednesday, and will try upset No. 2 Harvard, who looked strong in a 9-0 win Thursday against a St. Lawrence team slightly hobbled by injury. The No. 1-ranked Harvard women enter as strong favorites against No. 7 Columbia.
Bates will face conference foes as they host a series of teams at home. The women’s and men’s teams will face NESCAC rivals Middlebury Friday and Williams Saturday, before taking on George Washington on Sunday. George Washington will also use the road trip as an opportunity to face St. Lawrence Saturday and Colby on Sunday, both also hosted at Bates.
Princeton co-captain Kira Keating (r) defeated Trinity’s Akanksha Salunksha as part of a comeback 5-4 victory for Princeton
Several top teams maintained their undefeated records as the first major matches of the new year took place this week.
The No. 3 Princeton women upset No. 2 Trinity 5-4 on Thursday. Trinity led the match 4-1 before Princeton captured the final four matches, including wins by senior co-captains Kira Keating and Olivia Fiechter at No. 7 and No. 1, respectively. The victory extends Princeton’s record to 7-0 on the season.
The Harvard men, ranked No. 2, achieved the most dominant victory of the week with a 9-0 statement performance over No. 3 St. Lawrence. Only the No. 2 match went as far as five games, where Harvard sophomore Timmy Brownell topped Karim Ibrahim 12-10 in the final game.
The top-ranked Trinity men extended their own record to 4-0 as they topped No. 4 Columbia 6-3. Trinity was anchored by a 3-0 win at the top position by Kush Kumar over reigning college individual champion Osama Khalifa.
Trinity Senior Captain Raneem Sharaf, undefeated in the 2017-2018 season, will lead the No. 2-ranked Bantams in road matches at Columbia and Princeton.
College squash will see a furious set of midweek competition on Wednesday and Thursday between undefeated teams, including a top three women’s matchup and two men’s matches in the top four.
The No. 2-ranked Trinity women face a difficult road trip as they travel to No. 7 Columbia on Wednesday, January 10, before playing No. 3 Princeton on Thursday. Trinity topped Princeton 7-2 in the third-place playoff of college nationals last February, the last time the two teams faced each other.
The top ranked men’s team in the country—defending national champions Trinity—will encounter their toughest test of the season so far on Wednesday against No. 4 Columbia, who are led by college individual champion Osama Khalifa.
On Thursday, No. 3 St. Lawrence travels to Cambridge to face No. 2 Harvard. St. Lawrence already has two wins against top-eight teams under its belt, while Harvard enters relatively unchallenged, having not dropped a match in its opening two matches of the season.
In other top-ten matchups, No. 6 Rochester travels to Philadelphia to play No. 5 Pennsylvania on Wednesday and No. 9 Drexel on Thursday.
The CSA is creating a Player Advisory Committee, whose members will provide the association with student-athlete perspective and feedback. This committee will be made up of 6 players.
Coaches are asked to nominate current juniors or seniors who would be interested in serving on this committee. Nominations should include:
Player Name
School Name
Graduation Year (nominations may only be made for Class of 2018 or 2019)
A brief description of why the coach is nominating the player
Nominations can be made by sending an email to Jeanne Blasberg, Chair of the CSA Nominating and Governance Committee, at jblasberg65@gmail.com. Please submit all nominations by Monday, January 22. Thank you for considering players who would be appropriate for the honor of serving on this committee.
As players begin their return from winter break, teams will kick off the second half of the college squash season this weekend.
Highlighting Saturday’s competition will be Williams hosting Middlebury. Both matches have important ranking ramifications—in the women’s match, Middlebury enters at No. 15 with Williams one position ahead at No. 14. On the men’s side, No. 21 Williams will look for a home upset over No. 19 Middlebury.
Stanford will host a series of matches over the coming week as teams travel west for winter break training trips. Opening these matches will be the No. 4 Stanford women looking to defend their position against No. 9 Drexel.
In Sunday’s action, the Yale teams—No. 6 women and No. 8 men—will travel north to take on Amherst and Williams. Virginia will also brave the wintery weekend by traveling for an away match at Princeton.
