At the team level, Princeton squash faced a lot of changes this year. The women's team did not win the national championship for the first time in three years, and the men's team won the Ivy League outright for the first time since 1982. Some things, however, don't change.
Last year, Princeton took home both individual national titles. This year, those titles remained in the same hands, as both Tiger No. 1s — junior Julia Beaver and senior Peter Yik — repeated as national champs in Williamstown, Mass., last weekend.
"I'd have to say that winning this year was sweeter than it was last year," Yik said. "It's always harder to win a tournament the second time because everyone is gunning for you."
"I am even more happy this year, since my road to the championship was very difficult and there were many times when I doubted that I could win," Beaver said.
Although Beaver and Yik came out of the weekend with similar results, they faced different paths to their respective titles.
In the semifinals, Beaver faced Cornell's Olga Puidgemont-Sola and quickly dropped two games. In the third game, the Tiger was perilously close to losing the chance to defend her title, as Puidgemont-Sola had a match ball, meaning she needed only one more point to win the match.
"I managed somehow to stay in and win the match [in five games], proving that squash is indeed a very mental game," Beaver said.
In the finals later that day, Beaver faced Laura Keating, an Australian transfer student from Yale whom she had never played before. Again, the Tiger fell behind.
With the match tied at 2-2, Beaver fell behind 4-1 in the final game of the day. She came on strong to rally, not allowing another point to Keating, as she went on to win, 9-4.
"I'm not quite sure how I beat her," Beaver said. "She forced me to play the best squash I ever have. I think I just wanted the title more and was not going to give up."
The men's champion had a somewhat easier road to his title this past weekend. In the semifinals, Yik defeated Trinity's Preston Quick in three games, 15-9, 15-7, 15-10.
In the finals, Yik faced Quick's Bantam teammate, Marcus Cowie — the 1997 and 1998 national individual champion.
The first game started out badly for Yik, as Cowie jumped to a 10-2 lead. Yik rallied to take the game, however, 15-14.
"It was a tough first game, and I think it broke Cowie both mentally and physically," Yik said.
After that remarkable comeback, the match was not a contest, with the eventual champion winning the last two matches, 15-1 and 15-4.
"He was devastating," men's head coach Bob Callahan said. "It was one of the most dominant performances I've ever seen."
Although it may have seemed like the Beaver-Yik show at Williams College, many other Tigers took part in the tournament and had impressive performances.
"Princeton performed incredibly this weekend," Beaver said.
On the women's side, junior Meredeth Quick advanced to the quarterfinals, and senior Blair Irwin reached the round of 16.
For the men, Yik's brother, freshman David, made it to the quarterfinals, eventually losing to Cowie. Freshmen Dan Rutherford and Will Evans reached the round of 32, and sophomore Peter Kelly advanced to the round of 16.
"My team has been so supportive of me the entire year, this win belongs to them as much as it does to me," Yik said.
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