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Princeton University Athletics
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Men's Squash Seeks Redemption During CSA Team Championships
February 24, 2016 | Men's Squash
There is a different feel to the CSA Team Championships for the Princeton men's squash team this week, and it's one that has Sean Wilkinson, the Robert W. Callahan '77 Head Coach of Men's Squash, excited.
In each of the last two years, Princeton was the last team left out of the A draw of the team championships. That left the Tigers as the top seed in the Hoehn Cup draw, and anything short of victory would have been an immense disappointment. Both times, Princeton drew on its pride and competitiveness to come through.
This year, there is a much different feel. If it's the week Wilkinson believes it could be — the week he believes his team is ready for — Princeton could be the lower seed every time it takes the floor.
Princeton will enter this week's CSA Team Championships — held at Yale — as the fifth seed in the Hoehn Cup draw, and it will open Friday at 9 am against fourth-seeded Franklin & Marshall.
Should Princeton win that, it would likely face top-seeded Drexel Saturday at 2:30 pm. A win there could mean a date with second-seeded Cornell Sunday at 11:30 am for an opportunity at a third straight Hoehn Cup.
Curious about the results from those three matchups this season? Well, there was a trend.
Nov. 21: Franklin & Marshall 5, Princeton 4.
Dec. 1: Drexel 5, Princeton 4.
Feb. 12: Cornell 5, Princeton 4.
Safe to say, there will be no need to motivate this particular Princeton team.
With as many as six underclassmen — including four freshmen — starting the majority of the matches this season, this team has made steep improvements over the year. There was a clear rocky stretch in January — the Dartmouth-Harvard road trip in particular — but this team chose to not be defined by results.
It continued to put in the work, continued to grow as a unit, and the growth has been apparent. The Tigers pushed A qualifiers Yale and Columbia, nearly overcame an injury default in a 5-4 loss to Yale and defeated Brown 7-2.
There have been plenty of individual highlights along the way. Arguably the best result came from freshman Spencer Anton, who posted a 3-0 victory over Yale at the No. 1 spot, with all three games going extra points. The win came at a cost, though; Anton injured himself and missed the final three regular-season matches, though Wilkinson anticipates his return this weekend.
Junior Vivek Dinodia returned to Princeton after missing two years, and he has gone 7-7 while working himself from the No. 8 spot to as high as No. 3. After shaking off a lot of rust in the early season, you can see the talent that once helped Dinodia earn the Ivy League Rookie of the Year award.
Freshmen Clark Doyle and Cody Cortes have both played the No. 1 spot this season, and their games have grown from it. Similarly, sophomore Komron Shayegan jumped to the middle of the lineup after walking on to the team last year, and he is developing a physical, demanding style on court. Those three may not have won as many as they hoped this year, but they help represent an exciting foundation for the future.
The Tigers will likely need to rely on its depth this coming weekend, though. Senior Michael LeBlanc, a veteran from the 2013 Ivy League championship team, has held either the 6 or 7 spot most of the season, and he enters the weekend having won two of his last three. Sophomore Abhimanyu Shah leads the team with eight wins from the middle of the lineup, while freshman William Oon has a class-best six wins, including one in the season finale at Columbia.
Senior Sam Ezratty seemed to playing some of his best squash late in the season, especially in a 3-2 win over Yale, but he injured his shoulder against Cornell and his status for the weekend is unknown. Junior Ben Leizman will be ready, as he has won three straight, including a five-game comeback thriller over Cornell.