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Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Squash Teams Eye Ivy Championships During Final League Weekend
February 05, 2009 | Men's Squash
The Princeton men's and women's squash teams may have national championship aspirations, but neither team has forgotten its first goal of each season. Both teams will be going for the Ivy League championship this weekend when they take on Dartmouth Saturday and Harvard Sunday.
The Princeton women are ranked first nationally and are coming off an impressive run since the exam break. On Jan. 28, the Tigers defeated No. 2 Penn 6-3 in a rematch of the 2008 Howe Cup national final. The win avenged a 5-4 loss to the Quakers last season, a match that ultimately cost Princeton a shot at the Ivy League championship. With control of its own destiny, Princeton headed to New Haven last weekend and took out the fifth-ranked Yale Bulldogs 8-1.
Princeton heads into the weekend with a 8-0 record and a 4-0 mark in the Ivy League. On Saturday, Princeton will take on Dartmouth, which is 7-6 overall but has yet to win an Ivy League match in four tries. A Tiger win would set up a critical showdown with fourth-ranked Harvard, which could also be playing for the Ivy League championship that day.
Harvard is currently 6-0 overall, 3-0 in the Ivy League. The Crimson, which upset Penn to reach the 2007 national team final before falling 6-3 to Princeton, defeated No. 3 Trinity 7-2 Wednesday night and will head into the weekend with plenty of positive energy. On Saturday, Harvard will head to Penn for a 1 p.m. showdown; if the Crimson wins, it will be playing for at least a share of the Ivy League title Sunday against Princeton. If both Princeton and Penn win Saturday, the Tigers would clinch a share of their fifth Ivy League title and would be playing for an outright title and a No. 1 seed in the Howe Cup championships Sunday.
Both women's matches will begin at noon.
The Princeton men will be playing for their 16th Ivy League title and fourth straight, an unprecedented mark for the program, this weekend. The Tigers are currently 9-0 overall, 4-0 in the Ivy League, and are ranked second nationally. At 2 p.m. Saturday, Princeton will host Dartmouth (8-4, 1-3 Ivy League), and a win would clinch a share of the championship, since Harvard lost an early-season match to Cornell.
If Princeton defeats Dartmouth, it will go for an outright Ivy League title, as well as a 20th straight league win, Sunday at 3 p.m. against Harvard. While team stakes will be high in that match, as the Crimson look to stay alive for a shared league title and Princeton tries to clinch at least a second seed in the national team tournament, there will also be a major individual showdown at the No. 1 position. Princeton senior Mauricio Sanchez is the two-time reigning Ivy League Player of the Year and could become only the third player in league history to win the honor three times (along with Harvard's Kenton Jennigan and Princeton's Yasser El Halaby), but he will need to go through the surging Colin West; the Harvard junior defeated Trinity No. 1 and 2008 national finalist Gustav Detter 3-1 on Wednesday.
The Princeton men will play Dartmouth at 2 p.m. and Harvard at 3 p.m.