Princeton University
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Women's Squash Edges Trinity To Reach Third Straight National Final
February 14, 2009 | Women's Squash
The Princeton women's squash team will play in its third straight national final, but it took every ounce of fight to get there. The 2009 Ivy League champion needed three five-game victories, including one with a 10-9 final, to earn a chance for its third consecutive national championship Sunday against the host Harvard Crimson.
Princeton had not played Trinity yet this year, but it remembered the Bantams from the winter of 2008. The week before last year's Howe Cup, Trinity defeated Princeton 5-4 in a regular-season match; to date, no team has beaten Princeton since.
Trinity came the closest Saturday in the second Howe Cup semifinal. The first round of matches were a good indication of just how thrilling the match would be. Princeton led 2-1 after both freshman Katherine Giovinazzo and senior tri-captain Maggie O'Toole both recorded 3-2 wins. O'Toole dropped the second and fourth games, the latter by a 10-8 score, but came back strong to knock off Emery Holton 9-4 in the fifth.
Giovinazzo, facing her toughest test of the season, split 10-8 and 10-9 games to open the match before eventually claiming a 9-3 win over Andrea Echeverria in the No. 9 position. Trinity's Tehani Guruge, a former Constable Invitational finalist, won a pair of 10-9 games from Princeton's Emery Maine en route to a 3-1 victory at the No. 3 spot.
"That was a tough win for Katie," head coach Gail Ramsay said. "She really fought hard to get to that fifth game. It was really impressive to see a freshman like that step up."
Princeton built the lead to 4-2 after the second session. Sophomore Jackie Moss got Princeton its third win with a 9-3, 9-2, 9-5 victory over Pamela Jiminez at the No. 5 spot; that would be Princeton's only 3-0 win of the day. After Trinity's Emily Paton swept Nikki Sequeira at the No. 8 spot, Princeton looked to junior Neha Kumar for a big effort at the No. 2 spot against Nyaly Hernandez. After splitting the first two games, Kumar pulled out 9-7 and 9-4 wins to move Princeton to the brink of a championship.
"Neha played a really tough match," Ramsay said. "She was 7-2 down in the third and came back to win that one, and she won the fourth pretty decisively. Her backhand drop was really effective."
As it went on, it appeared Princeton could be on the brink of heartbreak as well. No. 1 player Amanda Siebert fell in three quick games to Nour Bhgat, and Aly Brady saw a 2-0 lead evaporate against Robyn Williams. That left Kaitlin Sennatt, one of head coach Gail Ramsay's best pressure players over the years. Taking on Joann Jee, Sennatt trailed 2-1 before evening the match with a 9-5 win. The fifth game would go as far as it could, with both players serving match ball at least once, when Sennatt pulled it out for a 10-9 win.
That win pushed Princeton into the national final against Harvard, which defeated 2008 finalist Penn 7-2 at its own Murr Center. Princeton defeated Harvard 5-4 in the regular season to clinch the Ivy League title, but both teams will have positives going into the final.
The Crimson will be playing on their home courts and will have three different matches of the five they lost in the regular season, as they flipped the 1-2 and 3-4 spots. They also had the earlier and quicker semifinal match. On the flip side, Princeton brings far greater experience into the final and knows that all four of the matches it lost to Harvard were by 3-2 scores.
The national final will take place at 2 p.m. at the Murr Center.
1) Nour Bhgat (T) d. Amanda Siebert 4, 2, 0
2) Neha Kumar (P) d. Nyaly Hernandez 2, (7), 7, 4
3) Tehani Guruge (T) d. Emery Maine (6), 10-9, 10-9, 6
4) Kaitlin Sennatt (P) d. Joann Jee 4, (7), (5), 5, 10-9
5) Jackie Moss (P) d. Pamela Jiminez 3, 2, 5
6) Maggie O'Toole (P) d. Emery Holton 1, (5), 2, (8-10), 4
7) Robyn Williams (T) d. Aly Brady (4), (9-10), 7, 2, 7
8) Emily Paton (T) d. Nikki Sequeira 6, 5, 5
9) Katherine Giovinazzo (P) d. Andrea Echeverria10-8, (9-10), 6, (7), 3