El Halaby rolls to second national title

Whether studying or letting loose for one last time, most Princeton students spent this weekend preparing themselves for this week's upcoming exams and papers. The men's and women's squash teams, however, had to try to put midterms far from their minds as they traveled to St. Lawrence to compete in the CSA Singles National Championship.

Princeton, traditionally one of the strongest programs in the nation, sent an impressive 12 players to the tournament, including several All-American and All-Ivy hopefuls, as well as the men's defending champion, sophomore Yasser El Halaby.

After winning five matches and 15 straight games, El Halaby claimed his second national title, obliterating Harvard's Will Broadbent along the way, 9-0, 9-6, 9-1.

Broadbent, who was ranked No. 3 going into the tournament, defeated No. 2 Julian Illingworth in the semifinals to advance to play El Halaby. Illingworth, Yale's top player and the only person to defeat El Halaby this season, was expected to reach the finals, which could have made the match against El Halaby more exciting.

Though all of Princeton's other players in the top 32 were eliminated in the first round, No. 18 Vincent Yu made it to the second round in the consolation tournament. There he was eliminated, 9-2, 9-0, 9-0. Freshman No. 25 Michael Gillman, junior No. 32 Dent Wilkens and junior No. 31 Nate Beck all lost in the first round of the consolation bracket.

Brandon Bascom, who was admitted to the tournament at the last minute off of the waitlist, was eliminated from the 'B' bracket in the second round but went on to win the second-round consolation tournament.

"Overall, everyone played well and benefited from the experience, especially the freshmen," head coach Bob Callahan said.

The same can be said for the women's team, whose six competing players made a good showing against the toughest opposition in the country.

Freshman No. 12 Ali Pearson was one of two Tigers to make it to the second round of the tournament. Pearson, who played at No. 2 for the Tigers most of the season, took on Trinity's Larissa Stephenson in the first round of the draw. Pearson won the first game but then struggled, losing the next two, 10-8 and 9-2, respectively. She managed to rebound, though, winning the final two games, 9-5 and 10-9, respectively. Her second-round match proved to be an insurmountable challenge. She played No. 5 Catherine McLeod of Yale and was soundly beaten in three games, 9-1, 9-1, 9-4.

Freshman No. 10 Claire Rein-Weston, the highest-ranked Tiger in the tournament, started out Friday by defeating Penn's Rhea Bhandare. Like Pearson's, this match stretched to five games. Rein-Weston won the first two and came very close to clinching the win in three, but lost game three, 10-9. This defeat kept her down for the next game, which she lost, 9-5, but she came back to seal the deal, winning 10-9 in a final game struggle. Rein-Weston moved onto the second round to play No. 7 Pam Saunders of Trinity. As before, the second round was not lucky for Princeton, and Rein-Weston fell in three one-sided games, 9-0, 9-0, 9-4.

The other three Tigers were not successful in the first round. Freshman No. 13 Marilla Hiltz lost to Dartmouth's Julia Drury in three. Freshmen Anina Nolan and Genevieve Lessard both started at a disadvantage from poor seeds. Nolan lost to No. 3 Louisa Hall of Harvard, and No. 4 Amy Gross of Yale swept Lessard.

Nolan went on to lose in the first round of the consolation matches to Bowdoin's lone representative, Niki Clement, but Lessard proved to have much better luck. She beat teammate Hiltz in three games in the first round, moving on to beat Quaker Radhika Ahluwalia and win the first-round consolation finals, 9-6, 9-6, 9-4.