#2 Princeton Seeks National Title, Opens Howe Cup Friday vs. #7 Columbia

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Women's Squash

November 22, 1PM

at Drexel

Women's Squash

November 23, 12PM

vs Stanford

Women's Squash

December 6, 12PM

vs Williams

Women's Squash

January 12, 12PM

at Amherst

Women's Squash

January 17, 12PM

at Yale

HOWE CUP BRACKETS

Ten years ago, the Princeton women's squash team made a dramatic run to the Howe Cup championship, a stretch that concluded with a 5-4 thriller over Harvard. One decade later, the Tigers would love to repeat that experience and shock the sport with an upset against the heavily favored Crimson.

Of course, the second-seeded Tigers have to get to Sunday's final first, and that path begins Friday at 4 pm when the Tigers take on seventh-seeded Columbia in the quarterfinal round of the 2019 Howe Cup Championships, which are being held at Trinity in Hartford, Conn. That match will take place exactly two weeks after an 8-1 Princeton win over Columbia during Senior Day at Jadwin Gym.

If form holds Friday, the Tigers would then take on third-ranked Trinity in the most compelling semifinal match of any Howe Cup draw. Princeton won a 5-4 thriller at Trinity during the regular season, but the Bantams were without their #1 player in that match. While the host will be looking to avenge the regular season loss, six of Princeton's nine starters would love to create new postseason memories after falling to the Bantams in the 2018 Howe Cup semifinal. That semifinal would be set for a 2 pm start and would run simultaneously with the other semifinal, likely between top-seeded Harvard and the winner of the Yale-Stanford semifinal.

If Princeton can make it two in a row over Trinity, the Tigers would return to the Howe Cup final for the first time since their championship effort in 2009. Barring a shocking upset, the Tigers would face Harvard, which has dominated the sport over the greater part of a decade and swept Princeton 9-0 in Jadwin earlier this year. The Tigers' last win over Harvard came during a 5-4 home win that sent Princeton to the 2013 Ivy League title, but the Tigers gave Harvard one of its biggest scares over their recent run of dominance during a 5-4 loss in the 2015 semifinal round.

Princeton will be led by each of the last two Ivy League Rookies of the Year. Bubble Lui, who has won six matches at the #1 spot for Princeton this season, was named the program's seventh Rookie of the Year when the vote was announced Wednesday, while 2018 Rookie of the Year Raneem El Torky joined her on the All-Ivy League team. Princeton's strength this season has been its depth; every player who has typically started between the third and ninth spots has won at least 10 matches this season, including a team-best 13 for senior co-captain Isabel Hirshberg. Freshmen Elle Ruggiero and Andrea Toth, both of whom will join Lui in making their Howe Cup debuts this weekend, have combined for 22 wins this season.

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