Princeton University Athletics
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Third-Seeded Women's Squash Ready For Another Howe Cup Run
February 23, 2012 | Women's Squash
HOWE CUP: BRACKETS/RESULTS l LINEUPS
On the heels of the magical run by the national champion Princeton men's squash team, the third-seeded Tiger women's squash squad has plans for a special weekend of its own.
Princeton will join seven other top-ranked programs at the Murr Center in Boston this weekend for the 2012 Howe Cup championships. Harvard is both the host and the top seed, while second-seeded Yale comes in as the defending champion.
As for Princeton? The Tigers just might be the team that is peaking at the right time.
Princeton, which has started as many as seven underclassmen throughout the season, endured a season of painfully close losses to highly ranked opponents. The Tigers opened their Ivy season with a 6-3 loss to fourth-seeded Penn, though only four Princeton players from that match will play in the same spots this weekend.
Then came a match with No. 1 Harvard, when the Tigers held two match balls over the top-seeded Crimson. Princeton left the Murr Center with a 5-4 loss, but it know it would return in late February as a team capable of competing with the best teams in the country.
Even a 7-2 home loss to Yale didn't deter the Tigers. Princeton lost three matches by 3-2 scores, and another three by 3-1 scores. The Bulldogs come into the weekend as the second seed, meaning Princeton could be seeing them again during the Saturday semifinal (Saturday, 1:30 pm). Should they meet, seven of the nine matchups would be the same, and Princeton's two wins are among the seven.
Head coach Gail Ramsay felt her team was continuing to improve, but she also thought it might need an infusion of confidence prior to the Howe Cup.
Then this happened.
Princeton's 8-1 victory over then-No. 3 Trinity was the perfect springboard into this weekend's national championships. The Tigers won five of their matches by 3-0 scores, including a win for No. 2 Libby Eyre, a sophomore who is undefeated this season and playing as well as any No. 2 in the country. Princeton also got wins from its three freshman starters: Nicole Bunyan (No. 3), Hallie Dewey (No. 7), and Alex Lunt (No. 8).
Princeton will head into the weekend with six underclassmen in the top nine; joining the aforementioned quartet are sophomores Saunders (No. 5) and Alex Sawin (No. 6). Sawin has won nine of her last 10, including a 3-0 win over Yale's Gwendoline Tilghman.
Ramsay will also have experience in the lineup, especially at some key positions. The Howe Cup is played in a three-shift format, and Princeton will send junior Casey Cortes out in the No. 9 position during the first shift. Cortes has won several marathon matches throughout her career, including a 3-2 win over Yale her freshman season, when she fought off three match balls.
In the final shift, Ramsay's two co-captains will take the court. Junior Julie Cerullo, one of the top-ranked players in the nation, will play No. 1, while senior Katie Giovinazzo will play No. 4. Cerullo went the distance against Yale's Millie Tomlinson, the reigning national champion, before falling in five, while Giovinazzo lost in four tight games.
To get another chance at Yale, Princeton will have to defeat sixth-seeded Stanford in the Friday quarterfinal (1:30). The Tigers swept Stanford 9-0 during the regular season and needed to play only 29 games, two more than the minimum.
On the other side of the draw, Harvard is likely looking at a semifinal showdown with either Trinity or Penn. Trinity defeated Penn at home 5-4 during the regular season, though Penn showed its capabilities in nearly upsetting Yale in early February.
Princeton can also draw on its experiences of last year, when it entered the Howe Cup as the fifth seed, but upset both No. 4 Penn and No. 3 Trinity to take third place. The Tigers went toe-to-toe with eventual champion Yale before falling in a close semifinal.
This year, Princeton would love nothing more than another semifinal date with Yale. The Tigers, peaking at the right time, think they might have a little magic of their own in store for the weekend.