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Princeton University Athletics
Squash Focuses On Crucial Final Ivy Weekend As Race To Nationals Continues
February 04, 2015 | Men's Squash
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When Princeton completed its 5-4 home win over Penn last week, it felt fairly confident that its journey back to the 'A' flight of the CSA National Championships was secure. Nothing short of a significant upset should have affected the path.
Naturally, you can guess what happened next.
Princeton began the week ranked eighth and posted wins over both Penn and Brown to avoid losing to a lower-ranked program and, thus, dropping in the polls. But on the same day Princeton defeated Brown, ninth-ranked Franklin & Marshall shocked third-ranked Rochester 5-4 in Lancaster, Pa.
That left Princeton, which defeated F&M 6-3 at Jadwin during the 2014-15 season opener, in the possible position of falling out of the top eight.
And then Sunday happened, and another upset was on the horizon.
Unfortunately, it didn't come at the hands of Princeton, which played valiantly but fell 6-3 at No. 5 Yale. Instead, it was 10th-ranked Dartmouth that turned heads with a 5-4 victory over No. 7 Cornell. That result, combined with the F&M one, could flip both schools and leave Princeton untouched at No. 8 (the updated rankings haven't been posted yet).
Regardless, the Tigers have three opportunities to strengthen their case to return to the 'A' flight this year, and that will begin Friday afternoon at the Jadwin Squash Courts against fifth-ranked Columbia. The Lions, led by likely Ivy League Player of the Year Ramit Tandon, will take on Princeton at 2 pm in a match streamed on the Ivy League Digital Network (see link atop this release).
Following that match, Princeton will pay tribute to its Hall of Fame head coach Bob Callahan, who passed away last week at the age of 59, during a memorial service on the Princeton campus Saturday afternoon. The Tigers will then head to Ithaca to take on a Cornell squad facing a must-win weekend. However, Princeton will have more than just the CSA championships on its mind; the last time the Tigers headed to Ithaca, they fell 5-4 to Cornell to cost them an outright Ivy League championship.
The Cornell match will be the final Ivy matchup of the year, though the men will host No. 1 Trinity the following Saturday in the final tuneup before the CSA championships.