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Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Kumar, Maine Remain In Hunt For CSA National Championship
February 28, 2009 | Women's Squash
Four members of the Princeton men's squash team and two from the women's team will compete in the CSA individual quarterfinals Saturday after winning a pair of Friday matches. Each of the six players stand only two more wins away from a berth in Sunday's national championship match.
On the women's side of the draw, only juniors Neha Kumar and Emery Maine remain in the draw. Maine, who survived a five-game thriller against Harvard's Bethan Williams in the first round, won a 1, 3 and 7 contest against Crimson No. 4 Alisha Mashruwala to advance to the quarterfinals. She will now face the toughest test of the tournament in Trinity freshman Nour Bahgat. The Bantams' No. 1 player is undefeated and the top-seeded player in the entire draw.
Maine is the only Princeton player remaining on the top half of the draw, as the fifth-seeded Amanda Siebert was upset in the second round by Stanford No. 1 and 2006 national champion Lily Lorentzen 10-8, 9-5, 9-5. While Siebert had recorded two wins over Lorentzen in the last two years, it was still one of the tougher second-round matchups for any of the top seeds, and Siebert was unable to advance.
Kumar had to work as hard as any of the eight women's quarterfinalists, but she advanced with a four-game win in the opener and a five-game win in the second-round match. She started by topping Dartmouth No. 1 Hannah Conant 9-3, 7-9, 9-6, 10-9 in a tight opening match. While she had to struggle to advance, her second-round opponent, Yale No. 2 Sarah Toomey, received a free pass after her opponent withdrew due to illness. Kumar had the edge after a four-game win in the regular season, but she knew the task would be tough against the fresh Toomey. Kumar split the first two and the middle two games, but she was the one with the late energy in a 7-9, 9-5, 7-9, 9-7, 9-1 victory.
Kumar will now face Williams' No. 1 player Toby Eyre in the quarterfinal. Eyre, who topped Siebert in their Howe Cup quarterfinal match, didn't lose a game in either of her first two matches.
Princeton sophomore Jackie Moss nearly pulled off the upset of the first round, but she fell to the seventh-seeded Nirasha Guruge 9-5, 3-9, 9-2, 5-9, 9-1.
On the men's side, Princeton has four of the eight quarterfinalists -- the most for any team, including national-champion Trinity. The top side of the draw includes one Princeton constant and one significant surprise. The constant was the fifth-seeded Kimlee Wong, who watched form hold in his quarter of the bracket. He opened his final weekend of collegiate competition by defeating Cornell No. 1 Will Hartigan 6, 1 and 2. He followed that up by knocking off Hartigan's teammate, Chris Sachvie, by scores of 3, 6 and 3.
Wong will next face Harvard No. 1 and overall third seed Colin West of Harvard. West advanced by topping Princeton senior Hesham El Halaby 2, 0 and 0 in their second-round showdown. El Halaby had the far tougher road to get to the second round; while West dropped only three points in his first-round encounter, El Halaby was stretched to the limit before ultimately defeating Trinity's Andres Vargas 9-6, 6-9, 1-9, 9-0, 9-5. The quarterfinal match between West and Wong will be a rematch from their 2008 quarterfinal, which Wong won 2-9, 9-2, 9-3, 9-4.
The winner of that match will be play either Trinity's Baset Chaudhry, the defending national champion and top seed, or Princeton freshman Kelly Shannon, who came into the weekend having played all of three matches in 2009. Shannon, one of the top recruits in the country this past season, fought his way back from a back injury to compete at the end of the season, and his heroic comeback from an 0-2 deficit in the national team final nearly catipulted Princeton to a thrilling upset of Trinity.
Shannon had one of the top upsets of the first round when he defeated Trinity No. 4 Parth Sharma (who, in turn, rallied from an 0-2 hole to help keep Trinity's national championship streak intact) by a 9-6, 9-2, 5-9, 10-9 score. The win was the best of Shannon's young career, but he made sure it wasn't the last of his freshman season. He followed it up by defeating Penn No. 1 Thomas Mattsson 3, 3 and 4 to advance to an unlikely showdown with Mattsson. Unfortunately for Shannon, he might owe classmate Chris Callis a debt of gratitude, since it was the eighth-seeded Callis that fought Mattsson through a marathon first-round match before losing 8-10, 3-9, 9-7, 10-8, 9-3.
On the bottom half of the draw, there will be another rematch of a 2008 quarterfinal, and it will feature Tiger teammates Mauricio Sanchez and David Letourneau. Sanchez cruised through the first two rounds, dropping only nine points to Antonio Diaz-Gonzales of Connecticut College in the opener and leading 9-3, 9-7, 4-0 before defeating Trinity's Randy Lim by injury default. Sanchez will now face Letourneau, who dropped only one point in his opener and then upset the seventh-seeded Manek Mathur of Trinity. The two players split the first two games and Letourneau led 4-0 in the third game before also earning an injury default.
When the two met in the 2008 quarterfinal, Sanchez dropped only three points to his younger teammate. The winner of this year's quarterfinal will face an unexpected semifinal rival, as 2008 finalist Gustav Detter was upset by his Trinity teammate, Vikram Malhotra, in a five-game second-round showdown. Malhotra, a newcomer to Trinity, played No. 8 in the CSA team championships, but will undoubtedly be one of their top forces next season. Malhotra will face the sixth-seeded Jim Bristow of Rochester, who outlasted Princeton's David Canner in a five-game marathon. Canner, who topped Rochester No. 4 player Alex Domenick in the first round, fought back from an 0-2 hole against the Rochester No. 1, but Bristow held him off for a 9-3, 10-8, 8-10, 7-9, 9-5 victory.
For all the draws of both the men's and women's national championships, please click here.