Squash: Tigers overcome set of injuries at Cornell

The Princeton men’s and women’s squash teams traveled to Ithaca, N.Y., for a weekend double header to open the season. The men defeated the Western Ontario Mustangs on Saturday, but the women lost to the Stanford Cardinal. Both squads defeated Cornell on Sunday in an important match for the Ivy League title race.

The men handled Western Ontario with ease on Saturday evening, winning all nine of the matches despite injuries to key Tigers. Sophomores Chris Callis and Kelly Shannon, two of Princeton’s best players, remain hampered by physical ailments.

“For a squash team, missing a couple top guys is big,” senior captain David Canner said.

Even without two of their top players, the Tigers were particularly dominant at the top of the ladder. Freshman Todd Harrity, playing in the top spot, lost only 10 points throughout his match. Junior Dave Letourneau, Princeton’s No. 2 player, won in a similarly convincing fashion, losing only 11 points total.

Changes since last year in the college squash scoring system make those performances even more impressive. Games are now played to 11, and points are awarded on every serve, so there are fewer blowout wins.

The rest of the Tigers played closer matches. Sophomore David Pena, playing at the fifth position, and freshman Steve Harrington, at No. 8, each needed five games to beat their opponents. Two points decided four of the five games of Pena’s match.

On Sunday, the men faced a tough Cornell team. “On paper, it looked extremely tight,” junior Peter Sopher said. The men had beaten Cornell 7-2 two weeks earlier at Ivy scrimmages, and this time they earned a tough 6-3 victory.

Three of the six matches that Princeton won were decided in five games. Pena, playing at No. 5, had another close match. With the score tied at eight in the fifth game, he won the final three points to take the game and the match. Sopher played an incredibly long fifth game, finally winning 16-14.

“It was the closest match I’ve ever played,” Sopher said.

Last year, the men lost only two matches in Ivy League play. After Sunday’s match against Cornell, the Tigers have already lost three, showing the effects of a depleted lineup and the graduation of the renowned Three Amigos, Mauricio Sanchez, Kimlee Wong and Hesham El Halaby.

Though the Tigers may not be as dominant as last year, Canner said he was encouraged by the persistence of the players. He noted that he and his teammates have won nearly all of their five game matches this season.

“It’s a testament to the gutsiness of the team,” he said.

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The women’s team lost 6-3 to Stanford on Saturday. Though Stanford is a relatively new team on the college squash circuit, it has recruited a number of good players over the past few years.

“We definitely knew they were going to be tough. We didn’t underestimate them at all,” senior captain Kaitlin Sennatt said.

Like the men, the women are missing some of their top players due to injury. The Tigers were forced to play without their top two players from last year, Amanda Siebert and Neha Kumar, as well as senior Emery Maine and sophomore Clare Kuensell. Maine had the flu, and Siebert has a minor foot injury, so they will be back in the lineup soon. Kuensell looks to be back in a few weeks, but Kumar’s status remains uncertain.

“Being a couple people down is always a very scary feeling,” Sennatt said.

Some players were forced to move up the ladder to higher positions than they are accustomed to playing, which players said was valuable for the team overall.

“It gave a couple people at the bottom of the ladder some great experience,” Sennatt said.

The women approached Sunday’s match with Cornell knowing it would be very difficult. Cornell had defeated Stanford on Friday, so the Tigers had cause for concern.

The match was close, but the Tigers prevailed, 5-4. Freshman No. 1 Julie Cerullo won the decisive fifth match for Princeton in the last match of the day. Junior Jackie Moss, playing in the No. 2 spot, won her match with an 11-9 victory in the fifth game over a childhood rival and former training partner.

For both teams, beating Cornell is the first step toward another set of Ivy League titles. It was particularly important for the men.

“Cornell is viewed as one of the major roadblocks to winning the Ivy League championship,” Canner said. “With a weakened lineup, [beating Cornell] sends the right message to the rest of the league.”

Though each squad is dealing with injuries to key players, both teams look forward to continuing their strong play against Brown and Bates in Jadwin Gymnasium on Dec. 5.