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Princeton University Athletics
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Resilient Men's Squash Ready To Surprise A Loaded Field, Open Play Saturday
November 20, 2014 | Men's Squash
KEY LINKS: LIVE VIDEO l @PUTIGERS l @PtonMSquash
Princeton opens its 2014-15 men's squash season Saturday at noon against Franklin & Marshall, and it will head to Navy Sunday for a morning meeting with the Midshipmen.
The Tigers head into the season ranked 10th nationally, though they can make a quick move upwards with a win Saturday against the seventh-ranked Diplomats. The match will be played over three shifts, and all matches will be streamed live through the Ivy League Digital Network.
Please note that if you are attending Saturday's match, there will also be a men's basketball and a football game going on, and there will be a $10 fee to park.
The 2014-15 men's squash season preview can be found below.
Murphy's Law smacked first-year head coach Sean Wilkinson and his Princeton men's squash team over and over last season. Injuries? Yes. Close losses? Yes. More injuries? Yes.
The results in the win-loss column weren't ideal, but Wilkinson and his team have moved past that. What they haven't moved past — nor do they have any plans to do so — was what they learned about themselves last season.
Do you know why Murphy's Law kept hitting them? Because they kept getting up for more.
Despite heavy graduation losses and injuries up and down the lineup, Princeton battled valiantly to stay within the Top 8 and earn an opportunity to compete for the Potter Cup. The Tigers nearly got it done against eventual semifinalist Yale, but a 5-4 loss and following losses to Trinity and Cornell pushed the Tigers down to the B flight.
Princeton suffered another injury during the team championships, but it rose one more time and knocked off Dartmouth and Columbia for the Hoehn Cup. Now they plan to fight their way back to the top flight against the deepest set of contenders in the history of collegiate men's squash.
The top of the lineup contains two very familiar names. Seniors Samuel Kang and Tyler Osborne are the lone starters left from the 2012 Ivy League/CSA national team champion, and they comprise one of the toughest 1-2 punches at the top of a lineup.
Kang earned a winning record during his debut season at No. 1 and finished eighth in the national rankings. He reached the CSA quarterfinals, losing to eventual champion Ali Farag, and he remains one of the most tireless competitors in the sport. If you are going to beat Kang, don't have plans for later that night, because you're going to stay on the court all day doing it. Wilkinson has worked on improving the offensive play in Kang's game, a factor that could take him to the top level of the sport.
Osborne has been playing in the top third of the lineup since his first day at Princeton, and he has a resume of big wins that can stand up with almost anybody in program history. Injuries hampered him throughout the season, but his toughness and intellect allowed him to earn All-America honors for a third straight season, and his mid-season victory over Trinity remains one of the favorite matches Wilkinson has ever coached. If Osborne can stay healthy for one final season, he could challenge deep into the individual championships.
Beyond that duo is where Princeton got hurt most last season; spots 3-5 belonged to players that had made a huge jump up in the lineup. Seniors David Hoffman and Taylor Tutrone, who have been teammates since their days at the Gilman School, are far more prepared for this level of play and could be one of the more surprising duos in the Ivy League season.
Hoffman has more than 20 wins in his career, including a crucial 6-3 road win at Yale during the 2013 Ivy League championship season. His height allows him to remain around the T while getting to most shots, but he is hoping to dictate play more this season. A couple of early-season victories would provide a big shot of confidence for a senior who has worked extremely hard to go out with his best season yet.
Tutrone is another 20-match winner who made a big move forward last season. Like Hoffman, he had a big win as a sophomore (vs. Harvard in the CSA team semifinals), but he struggled with the jump in level as a junior. The year of experience and work should make him far more prepared this season.
Junior Michael LeBlanc is a three-year starter who is looking to move into the top half of the lineup this season, and he is building off a 3-0 finish at the CSA Championships. He has recorded double-digit victories every year of his career, and he has improved his consistency and shotmaking to better handle another potential move up the ladder.
The top freshman on the varsity ladder this year is likely to be Jarryd Osborne, the younger brother of Tyler. Jarryd was ranked third in Canada at the U-19 level, and he brings a skillset and competitive nature that will make him immediately viable in the middle of the lineup. He doesn't bring in the same experience that his older brother had, but he is a similar type of fighter on the court, and Tyler has proven time and again how important that is.
The bottom third of the lineup will be vital to Princeton this season. If the Tigers can control those three matches consistently, they have a chance to move back into the Top 5-6 teams in the nation. The early potential starters here are underclassmen, but Wilkinson has been thrilled with their early work this year.
Junior Sam Ezratty had minimal varsity experience prior to last season, but he posted a winning record playing mostly the 6th and 7th spots. What he lacked in match play, he made up for in toughness, especially in the postseason. He went 3-0 in the Hoehn Cup, and he needed to win all three of his matches in five games.
Sophomore Ben Leizman gained important experience last year. He brings over significant experience from last year, going 7-6 mostly at the No. 8 spot. He was a .500 player in Ivy matches and went 2-1 at the team championships, but he now has both the full year of experience and offseason work to build upon.
Freshmen Abhimanyu Shah and Komron Shayegan are also two strong contenders to see varsity time. Shah placed fourth at the 2013 Junior National Championships, and he has impressed Wilkinson with his cerebral approach to the sport. He can take a gameplan and execute it against any style opponent.
Shayegan played four years of varsity squash at the Lawrenceville School, and he has proven to be an intense competitor already this preseason.
The days of ho-hum December matches are long gone for Princeton, which will play three teams ranked ahead of it over the first three weeks, beginning with the home opener against Franklin & Marshall. The Tigers will also play a road weekend at Rochester and St. Lawrence, two Top 5 teams. They open the Ivy schedule against the reigning national champion Harvard Crimson Jan. 10, and they close the home schedule Feb. 14 against Trinity.
The national team championships will be held Feb. 20-22 at Trinity, while Jadwin will host the individual championships the following weekend. Wilkinson would love nothing more than to see both Kang and Osborne compete deep into that final weekend.