Women's Squash: Elusive singles title up for grabs this weekend

From 1977 to 1980, Penn State’s Ramsay dominated the women’s national singles tournament, becoming the only four-time national singles champion in women’s college squash history. Ramsay beat Princeton’s Nancy Gengler ’80 to earn her final two titles.

The Tigers have not had a singles champion since Julia Beaver ’01 won three consecutive titles from 1999 to 2001, and Princeton has only captured the singles and team titles in the same season twice, an oddity for a team with 17 national titles.

Wendy Zaharko ’74 completed Princeton’s first dual title in 1972, and Demer Holleran ’89 followed Zaharko 12 years later.

It is common knowledge that depth wins team titles, which is why the Orange and Black has had so much success in team tournaments. It takes nine players for a team match and five wins for a team victory.

And with junior No. 1 Amanda Siebert’s victory against Harvard’s Nirasha Guruge, Princeton earned the critical fifth win two weekends ago to capture the Howe Cup.

On Tuesday, the College Squash Association (CSA) released February’s individual rankings, which determine the seeds for this weekend’s singles tournament. Siebert is ranked fifth, which will probably translate into a No. 2 seed.

Siebert said she will take nothing for granted heading into the weekend of play.

“I believe that on any given day, anyone could win,” Siebert said. “There are a lot of strong college squash players at the top of many teams. You can even see on our team how close everyone is in level. I have never had the number one seed at this tournament. Last year, it was a real bummer that I had to pull out after getting sick, but it is a new year with new opportunities.”

Last year, Siebert lost her first- round match, but she still earned first-team All-American honors due to her superior regular-season play. Normally, the All-American distinction is based on the singles tournament, but Siebert was on a serious streak of victories going into last year’s tournament.

Princeton does not have a top-seeded player this year. Though junior Neha Kumar is a two-time first-team All-American, she is ranked sixth. Junior Emery Maine, a second-team All-America selection in 2008, will enter the tournament as the ninth-ranked player in the field. Maine won this year’s Constable Cup, edging out Siebert in the final.

Sophomore Jackie Moss, another second-teamer, rounds out the Princeton contingent. As Moss has battled injuries all year, her ranking has dropped to 28th, but she could be a dark-horse contender to go deep into the tournament.

Several other key players have also been injured on both the men and women’s teams.

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Kumar has sported a large black ankle brace for the past year, but she still gutted out a three-game sweep against Harvard’s June Tiong two weekends ago. Kumar noted that she put a great deal of effort into last weekend’s matchup and that she has strategies to help her remain successful, even with the injury.

“I really put my all into Howe Cup last weekend and had to push myself to play three hard matches,” Kumar said. “I try not to focus on the injury and that I have not been able to practice as much as I would have liked to. Instead, I think of what I am still capable of doing on the court and how I can use those skills to disguise the weaknesses in my game and create rallies that allow me to utilize my strengths.”

Kumar will need all her strength when she battles Trinity’s No. 1 Nour Baghat on center court. The ascendant Bantams star from Sri Lanka has not dropped a match all year, and squash aficionados have predicted that she might not lose a match during her entire career.

Penn’s Kristin Lange, Williams’ Toby Eyre and Yale’s Logan Greer fill the tournament’s other number-one seeds. Harvard, which faced Princeton in the Howe Cup final, does not have a number-one seed in the tournament.. The Crimson’s No. 1, Nirasha Guruge, is ranked seventh, below both Kumar and Siebert. But yet again, once the tournament is completed, the pre-tournament rankings are history. The post-tournament rankings are all that matter.

Members of the men’s squash team will also compete in the CSA Singles Tournament this weekend and will likely face top-ranked familiar foes from recently crowned national champion Trinity.