Women's Squash

The women’s squash team, the Ivy League champions, entered this weekend’s Howe Cup as the number-one seed and with high expectations of a national championship. However, the Tigers head home in the same position as last year’s team did, having lost in the semifinals and then the third-place match.

The Princeton women’s squash team, ranked No. 1 in the country, clinched the Ivy League Championship last Sunday with a win over Columbia. The Tigers (11-0 overall, 7-0 Ivy League) have dominated the majority of their matches, posting an undefeated regular season record and a win rate of roughly 90 percent in individual matches. Their final challenge as a team this year is this weekend’s Howe Cup, the Women’s College Squash National Tournament, hosted by Yale. Princeton was defeated last year in the semifinals 2-7 by Yale and was also dropped 2-7 by Trinity in the third-place match.

From 2003 through 2006, Yasser El Halaby ’06 won four straight men’s squash individual national championships. Though sophomore Todd Harrity will never equal El Halaby’s extended run of dominance, Harrity’s second-year campaign exceeded even the lofty standards set by his predecessor.

Playing on its home courts in Jadwin Gymnasium, the women’s squash team believed it could pull some upsets at the Howe Cup, the season-ending team tournament. Though the No. 5 Tigers fell to the eventual champion, top-ranked Yale, they upset a pair of higher-ranked foes, beating No. 4 Penn in the opener and No. 3 Trinity in the third-place match.

This weekend, the women’s squash team (9-4 overall, 4-3 Ivy League) will host the three-day Howe Cup national championship tournament at Jadwin Gymnasium. The No. 5 Tigers will compete in the A-Division along with the other teams ranked in the top eight nationally.