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Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Youthful Women's Squash Prepares To Build On Thrilling 2011 Finish
November 18, 2011 | Women's Squash
Five seasons ago, the Princeton women's squash team had a freshman class that ignited one of the greatest runs in program history. Led by the likes of Amanda Siebert, Neha Kumar and Kaitlin Sennatt, the Tigers posted their first of three consecutive national championships.
Last season may not have had quite as star-studded an ending, but it could also be the foundation for some exciting seasons to follow.
Head coach Gail Ramsay typically sent out lineups that included six underclassmen last season, and it took Princeton a couple months to really find its way. But when it did, it nearly made one of the most shocking runs in CSA history. The fifth seed in the Howe Cup team championships, Princeton knocked off No. 4 Penn to reach the semifinal, and it topped No. 3 Trinity on the final day to earn a third-place finish.
And in the middle, the Tigers nearly pulled off the biggest shocker of all before ultimately falling 6-3 to Yale. Princeton will be looking to upgrade on last year's run during the 2011-12 season, which opens this weekend with a Saturday road match at Franklin & Marshall and continues Sunday at 1 in the home opener against Middlebury.
Seven starters return from last season, and that group will be led by junior co-captain Julie Cerullo, who ended the 2010-11 season ranked third nationally. The two-time All-America and All-Ivy honoree, Cerullo has a 29-10 career record while playing mostly at the No. 1 position. A 2011 Academic All-Ivy honoree, she made a run to the individual semifinals, though her most impressive win may have been a 3-1 victory over Trinity's Catalina Pelaez during the final day of the Howe Cup championships. Not only did it avenge a loss from one week earlier, but it helped clinch the remarkable third-place finish for Princeton.
Senior co-captain Katie Giovinazzo won 14 matches last season, and she peaked at the end of the season with six straight victories to win the Holleran Cup (players ranked 33-64). Like Cerullo, she had a big win against Trinity in the Howe Cup final, and she will build off the experience of a season filled with tense matches.
While those two provide the most experience near the top of the lineup, there are several talented sophomores that gave Princeton quite a boost during their first collegiate season. With one year under their belts, especially including the dramatic Howe Cup weekend, Ramsay thinks they could all take a big jump this year.
Leading that group is Libby Eyre, who earned second-team All-America honors and was ranked 13th at the end of last season. Only three freshmen ended the year ranked above Eyre, who won 12 matches for Princeton while playing No. 3. She posted a winning record during the Howe Cup team championships, including a 3-0 win over No. 1 Yale, and she won a match in the championship draw of the Gail Ramsay Cup.
Classmate Lexi Saunders played right behind Eyre most of last season, and she won 10 matches. She won her first postseason match over Harvard's Alisha Mashruwala in the Ramsay Cup consolation draw; Mashruwala was ranked 14 spots higher than Saunders. With a vast array of shots, Saunders is a tough matchup for any opponent.
Fellow sophomores Alex Sawin and Caroline Feeley both played in the bottom half of the lineup, and each had highly successful seasons. Sawin shared the team lead with 17 wins, and she was one of two Princeton players to win each of her three matches during the Howe Cup Championships. Sawin reached the finals of the Holleran Cup before falling to Giovinazzo; together, that duo should give Princeton a strong pair in the middle of the lineup.
When Princeton has been at its best in recent year, it has gotten strong play from the bottom two spots, and both Feeley and junior Casey Cortes gave Princeton that last season. Feeley won 13 matches, including a pair against Penn, and won three times in the Holleran Cup.
Quietly, Cortes had as good a season as anybody. She also won 17 matches for Princeton, and her 3-2 win over Yale in the Howe Cup semifinal was one of several thrilling wins in her young career. A gutsy competitor, Cortes won the first-round consolation draw in the Ramsay Cup, where she defeated four higher-seeded players along the way.
Upperclassmen Daphne Rein-Weston, Eliza Kontulis, Alice Fuller and Katherine Schloss will all compete for positions in the varsity lineup. They will also help serve as mentors for another strong freshman class that Ramsay hopes can give Princeton the same type of spark that the Class of 2014 provided last year.
Nicole Bunyan was a top Canadian recruit who placed second in the 2011 U-19 Canadian Junior Squash national championships and is a 2011 B.C. Juniors champion. A tall, athletic player, Bunyan's court coverage makes her a tough player to attack consistently.
Hallie Dewey is a tenacious, hard-hitting competitor who has been consistently ranked in the Top 10 nationally throughout Juniors. She played No. 1 for Deerfield Academy all three years and went 27-1 as a senior while leading Deerfield to the New England championship.
Alex Lunt led Greenwich Academy to four straight national team championships and won the New England individual championship each of the last three years. She is a gifted physical presence with less experience than most of her teammates, so Ramsay believes her ceiling could be very high as she competes daily against her talented teammates.
Freshmen Hadley Chu and Catherine Dennig both walked on to the team this season and will work hard to improve as they vie for spots on the varsity ladder.
The Tigers will be challenged in a tough Ivy League, where the foursome of Yale, Harvard, Penn and Princeton all figure to compete for the league crown. Add Trinity to that mix, and the 2012 Howe Cup championships (Feb. 24-26 at Harvard) figure to be just as exciting as this past year.