Julia Beaver

Three consecutive national championships.

It is a dynasty. Granted, it is a dynasty with necessary bounds, but one with unquestionable legacy.

Julia Beaver must leave the women's squash team after this year, because that is what seniors do. Most seniors do not leave with three individual national championships under their arm, but after last weekend's win at the WISA Individual Championships, Beaver had completed that astonishing feat.

Her victory squelched doubt in many onlookers' minds. For the first time since her freshman year, Beaver seemed fallible this year. She lost in a dual meet to Penn's Runa Reta Then, at the Howe Cup, she dropped another to Trinity's Nina Halel. Some went so far as to say that Beaver was not the favorite at last weekend's tournament.

Such talk was useless chatter, however. Beaver beat Reta, 3-1, in the semifinals and then wiped out Halel by the same score in the finals. With that, the losses were proven aberrations, and Beaver took a place among the greatest college squash players ever.

Julia Beaver will leave after this year, leaving the Princeton women's squash team scrambling to compensate for her loss but certain that there will never be a replacement.