Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Day One
Players Mentioned
Harrity, Cerullo Remain Alive In CSA Individual Championships
March 05, 2011 | Women's Squash
Both the Princeton men's and women's squash teams will head into the second day of the CSA national individual championships with their top player remaining in the hunt for a title.
On the women's side, No. 1 player Julie Cerullo made it to her first individual quarterfinal with a strong pair of wins, including one against her own teammate. She opened the tournament with a 3-0 victory over Dartmouth's Corey Schafer; after a hard-fought opening game, she dropped only nine points in her final two to take the victory.
Cerullo was one of three Princeton women to win in the first round. Senior co-captain Jackie Moss defeated Cornell's Jennifer Gemmell 11-2, 11-3, 11-6, while freshman Libby Eyre earned her first individual tournament win with a hard-fought 3-2 win over Harvard's June Tiong. Eyre was down 2-1, but she showed the competitive resilience that head coach Gail Ramsay appreciates with wins of 11-9 and 12-10 to advance.
Not only did Eyre have to come back on the court later in the day, but she had to take on her top teammate. Cerullo, the far fresher player, won the match in four games, including an 11-4 win in the fourth.
Moss fell to Yale No. 2 Millie Tomlinson in three games, but she and Eyre will look to earn All-America honors throughout Saturday's consolation rounds.
As for Cerullo, she won't see the opponent most figured. Fifth-seeded Pamela Hathway, the No. 2 at Trinity, was pushed to five games in the first round and lost in five games to Penn's Rachael Goh in the second round. Cerullo will face Goh at 11:30 Saturday morning, with the winner likely to face defending champion Laura Gemmell of Harvard in a 4:30 semifinal.
Like the women, the men still have their top player in the hunt for a national title. Sophomore Todd Harrity is undefeated on the season and hasn't lost a single game since November. That streak continued Friday with 3-0 wins over Trinity's Antonio Diaz Glez and Rochester's Andres Duany.
Harrity will take on Rochester No. 1 Benjamin Fischer in Saturday's semifinal; those two met on Sunday in the national third-place match, and Harrity earned an 11-5, 11-9, 11-1 victory. The winner will take on somebody from Trinity, either No. 1 Vikram Malhotra or No. 4 Christopher Binnie.
Harrity's teammates fell victim to a hard-luck day of competition, and none suffered a greater upset than second-seeded David Letourneau. After a brilliant and undefeated regular season, Letourneau finally felt the effects from a run of marathon matches. He earned a 3-2 win over Yale last Saturday, and he opened the competition with a 3-2 comeback win over Yale's John Fulham.
That left him vulnerable to dangerous Trinity veteran Randy Lim, whose made a career of big matches. Lim pushed Letourneau to a fifth and had the late answers for an 11-9 victory.
Lim will now face teammate Andres Vargas, who won a five-game thriller over Princeton junior Kelly Shannon. Like Letourneau, Shannon opened the day with a 3-2 win over Dartmouth No. 1 Chris Hanson. After losing the first two games by two points apiece, Shannon rallied for wins of 11-6, 11-9 and 11-7 to become the lowest seeded player in either the men's or women's draw to advance to the second round.
Unfortunately, he wouldn't have enough to upset Vargas. Shannon fought for a tight win in the fourth game, but the Trinity senior won 11-7 in the fifth to take the match.
Both senior Peter Sopher and junior Christopher Callis lost in the first round to higher-seeded players. Sopher fell 3-0 to Harvard's Gary Power, while Callis lost in five games to Yale's John Roberts.