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Princeton University Athletics
El Halaby Seeks History As Individual Nationals Begin This Weekend
March 04, 2005 | Women's Squash
March 4, 2005
HANOVER, N.H. - There has never been a men's squash player to capture three individual national championships prior to their senior year, but Princeton junior Yasser El Halaby has that shot this weekend at the national individual championships. He leads a group of 13 Tigers, both male and female, who will represent Princeton in the 2005 individual nationals, held this weekend at Dartmouth.
The national championships are broken into four sections, an 'A' and 'B' group for both genders. The men's 'A' group is the "Pool Division" and the 'B' group is the "Malloy Division." The women's 'A' group is the "Ramsay Cup," named for Princeton head coach Gail Ramsay, and the 'B' group is the Holleran Cup. Brackets for all four tournaments can be found here.
The following is a breakdown of all four brackets. Pool Division
All eyes will be focused on the top-seeded El Halaby, who won the 2003 and 2004 national championships. He was virtually untested in last year's championship, winning each of his five contests by matching 3-0 scores.
The Princeton junior, who battled injury and illness during the season, wasn't assured the No. 1 seed until this past weekend's team championships. Despite regular season losses to Dartmouth's Ryan Donegan, seeded seventh, and Yale's Julian Illingworth, seeded second, El Halaby rebounded in time to play his best squash over the last two weeks. Following a 3-0 win over 2002 champion and current No. 3 seed Bernardo Samper in the regular season finale, El Halaby swept both Samper and Illingworth last weekend to claim the top spot.
El Halaby starts his journey against No. 29 Hank Alexander, who will have to take advantage of playing on his home court. A win would send El Halaby to a Friday night matchup against either Trinity's Jacques Swanepoel or Yale's Josh Schwartz.
If seeds hold form, El Halaby's top tests should come in Saturday's semifinal (7:30 p.m.) and Sunday's final (1 p.m.). Harvard No. 1 player Siddharth Suchde could be a semifinal opponent, and he is a dangerous young player that would provide a very strong test. The final will likely feature either Illingworth or Samper, both of whom have at least one career win against El Halaby.
While El Halaby is the favorite amongst the Princeton men, he isn't the only one looking to make a name for himself. Freshman Robert Hong is seeded 14th and will face Cornell's Will Cheng, the 17th seed, in the first round. Although Hong has been playing well of late, Cheng has already defeated Hong 3-1 during the regular season.
No. 26 Preston Comey will face Donegon and No. 30 Tom McKay will face Suchde in the first round. Both are strong players, but both are taking serious leaps in level of competition and will be heavy underdogs to advance to the second round.
Ramsay Cup
Unlike the Pool Division, only the top eight seeds are announced for the women's top individual competition. Five Princeton Tigers, Claire Rein-Westin, Margaret Kent, Genevieve Lessard, Marilla Hiltz and Lena Neufeld, are all unseeded.
That doesn't mean that one or more of them can't make some noise in this tournament.
Start with Claire Rein-Weston, the No. 1 player for Princeton. She opens up Friday against Clare Whipple, the No. 2 player for Williams College. The Princeton sophomore would be favored to reach a probable second-round match against Brown's Lillian Rosenthal, the No. 8 seed in the tournament.
Rosenthal and Rein-Weston played a thriller during the regular season. Despite trailing 2-0, Rosenthal rallied in front of her home fans and won the final three games, including a 10-8 victory in the fifth game. Rein-Weston, who has gotten stronger since that match, will have a strong chance to pull the upset and likely face No. 1 Michelle Quibell in the national quarterfinal. Quibell, the defending champion and a two-time Constable champion, did struggle a bit against Rein-Weston in the Howe Cup. Although she won the match 3-0, two of the games went to 10-8.
Hiltz, Princeton's No. 2, opens with Supryia Balsaker, the No. 5 player from Harvard. The winner will face a tough test Friday night against Kyla Grigg, the top player for the Crimson and the overall No. 2 seed.
Lessard, the No. 3 player for the Tigers, also faces a Harvard foe in the first round. She meets Audrey Dobic, the No. 4 player for Harvard. Like Hiltz, a win for Lessard would mean a tough second round, as she would face Quibell.
Other first-round matchups are Neufeld facing Penn's Paula Pearson and Kent going up against Brown's Rosenthal.
Malloy Division
Vincent Yu and Rob Siverd are Princeton's lone entrants in this bracket.
Yu, who played No. 2 for Princeton in 2004 and then dealt with an illness that cost him the entire offseason, is rounding back into form and will be a very tough out in this draw. He opens with Nik Trikha in the first round.
Siverd is unseeded and opens with Rochester's Patrick Harris. The Princeton senior will finish an exciting career this weekend; Siverd has won key matches during each of Princeton's 2002 and 2003 Ivy League championships, including the decisive win in a 5-4 victory over Harvard in 2002.
Holleran Cup
Princeton native Carly Grabowski, a freshman who went undefeated during the 2005 regular season, is the top seed for the Holleran Cup. She opens against Bowdoin's Susie Martin.
The No. 7 seed is Anina Nolan, Princeton's other player in this draw. Nolan, who has proven to be a big-match player multiple times in her first two years, will open against Denison's Kendell Anders.