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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
CSA Singles Tournament
Players Mentioned
Freshman Todd Harrity Reaches CSA Squash National Final
March 07, 2010 | Men's Squash
Princeton freshman Todd Harrity survived a five-set battle with Trinity's Antonio Diaz Glez in the CSA national semifinal to become the first freshman to play for the national squash championship since Princeton legend Yasser El Halaby in 2003. Harrity will take on Harvard senior Colin West, who owns two close victories over Harrity this season.
The championship final will take place Sunday at 12 p.m. on the main court at Trinity College.
Harrity, the second seed, opened the weekend with wins over a pair of Harvard players, Reed Endresen and Richard Hill. His quarterfinal was set up to be a match against seventh-seeded Hywel Robinson of Yale, but Princeton sophomore Kelly Shannon had other ideas. Shannon, who made a similar strong run at the 2009 championships, rallied from 2-0 down and won a 13-11 thriller in the fifth to reach the national quarterfinal.
Harrity was ready for his teammate and won a 3-0 semifinal. He was prepared to take on Trinity's Parth Sharma, the Bantams' No. 2 player and the third-seeded player in the tournament. But Sharma fell to Diaz Glez in four games, setting up an all-freshman semifinal. Harrity won the first two games 11-5 and 11-9, but Diaz Glez rallied with wins of 11-5 and 11-9. Harrity steadied in the fifth and won 11-5 to reach the final.
Now he meets West, who has yet to drop a game in the tournament. In the regular season, West pulled out a 11-7, 12-10, 5-11, 11-9 victory over Harrity; in the national team quarterfinals, Harrity extended the match to five games before West earned a 11-9, 11-4, 9-11, 4-11, 11-4 victory. Both players will be competing in their first national final. Harvard hasn't won a national title since Siddharth Suchde won in 2007; Princeton hasn't won since El Halaby beat Suchde in 2006.
Princeton's two other Pool Division (the 'A' draw) competitors both lost in the first round to Trinity players. Fourth-seeded Dave Letourneau was upset by Andres Vargas, while Chris Callis fell to veteran Randy Lim.
Sophomore David Pena reached the Molloy Cup semifinals in the 'B' draw competition with a four-game win over Cornell's Arjun Gupta. Pena now takes on sixth-seeded Jason Michas of Harvard, who topped Princeton's Peter Sopher in four games.
On the women's side, both Jackie Moss and Neha Kumar made it out of the first round of the Ramsay Division main draw. Moss topped Rachael Goh in four games before falling to three-time finalist Kristen Lange of Penn. Kumar topped eighth-seeded Nirasha Gurgue of Harvard, but fell to fellow Crimson player Alisha Mashruwala in four games. Mashruwala defeated Princeton's Julie Cerullo in five tough games in the first round.
Cerullo reached the final of the consolation draw and will play Goh at 11 a.m. Kumar reached the finals of the second-round consolation draw and will take on Nayelly Hernandez Perez, also at 11.
In the Holleran Division 'B' draw, both Katie Giovinazzo and Nikki Sequeira won their first match before ultimately losing in the second round.