Weekend Brief

CSA Individual Nationals

Members of the men's and women's squash teams travel to St. Lawrence this weekend for the College Squash Association Individual National Championship.

The top 64 men's and women's college players in the nation compete in one of two 32-person divisions. Only the players in the top division can vie for the title.

The men's team sends its top five to St. Lawrence — Yasser El Halaby, Vincent Yu, Michael Gilman, Nate Beck and Dent Wilkens — all of whom are seeded in the top 32. El Halaby enters the tounament ranked No. 1, while Yu is his next-closest teammate at No. 18.

The women's team sends a large squad to the tournament as well, with six Tigers — Claire Rein-Weston, Ali Pearson, Marilla Hiltz, Anina Nolan, Gen Lessard and Annie Warner — making the trip. Five of the six will compete in the top 32, although none is in the top 10.

In addition to the national champion, All-Americans are chosen according to their final standings this weekend. The top 10 players make first team All-America, while Nos. 11-20 are named to the second team.

Men's hockey ECAC playoffs

Men's hockey (5-22-2 overall, 5-15-2 ECAC) gets a chance to redeem their less-than stellar record this weekend as they take on RPI (19-13-2, 13-8-1) for the first-round of the ECAC playoffs.

Friday's game, the first in a best-of-three round, will be pivotal for Princeton.

"It's really important that we win the first game, because the series usually lasts two games in my experience," senior defense Matt Maglione said. "If we win the first game, I think we can win the series."

Defensively, the Tigers will look to sophomore goaltender Eric Leroux for a solid performance as well as Maglione and senior defender Steve Slaton. They will also look to freshman forward Grant Goeckner-Zoeller and sophomore forward Dustin Sproat to spark the offense.

If the Tigers defeat RPI, they will meet up against top-ranked Colgate next weekend in the quarterfinals. But for now Princeton, the first-round underdog, is taking things one game at a time, knowing that it will be the team with the most determination that will move on beyond this weekend.