Men's squash: Tigers place third at CSA championship

Last year, the Princeton men’s squash team ended Trinity’s 13-year CSA national championship winning streak to become the national champion. In this year’s tournament, the Tigers broke another winning streak, but it was much more bittersweet. Despite senior Todd Harrity’s thrilling victory over Harvard’s undefeated Ali Farag, Princeton fell to the Crimson 5-4 in the Potter Cup semifinal and lost the chance for a title repeat.

Saturday’s opening match held promise for Princeton — sophomore Tyler Osborne (No. 3) opened the first shift with a 3-0 win, followed by another 3-1 victory by classmate Taylor Tutrone at the No. 6 spot. The second shift, however, was dominated by Harvard, as sophomores Samuel Kang (No. 2) and David Hoffman (No. 8) both lost in marathon matches, putting Princeton in a position where it needed to win all its remaining matches to earn the victory.

Harvard held a 4-2 lead going into the final three matches, until Harrity, a three-time first-team All-American and three-time first-team All-Ivy, started a Tiger surge that would tie the match. Harrity and Farag, playing at the No. 1 spot, had faced each other twice before this season, with Farag, the reigning CSA individual national champion, winning both matches. In fact, Harrity had never beaten Farag until Saturday.

“I really enjoy playing him,” Harrity said. “It was a big accomplishment for me because I’ve never beaten him before. Last time we played, even though I got a game, I felt like he was a level above me. So I feel like I kind of proved myself and proved that I’m on that level.”

Harrity upset Farag 11-8, 9-11, 11-8, 11-9 and handed the Harvard junior the first loss of his collegiate career, putting Princeton within one match of tying the Crimson.

“Todd had talked to me about how much this meant to him,” junior Dylan Ward said. “It’s his last tournament, his last big event as a squash player in college, and he really wanted to go out showing that he was, and is, number one, and he could go out with a big win for the team.”

Freshman Vivek Dinodia, playing at the No. 7 spot, pushed the Tigers to the 4-4 tie in a 3-0 victory. The outcome of the match would be determined by Ward’s match against Harvard’s former No. 1 Gary Power. It was a familiar situation for Ward (No. 4), who has gotten used to playing in the last shift — in past matches against the Crimson, he has twice clinched the win for Princeton.

“It’s been interesting playing that role on the team, and I guess I’ve sort of embraced it recently,” he said.

Ward opened the match by taking the first two games 11-6 and 12-10, but Power dug deep and came from behind to win the final three games 11-7, 11-7, 11-7 and put Harvard in the finals.

On Sunday, instead of a repeat of last year’s finals against Trinity, Princeton beat Yale 6-3 in the third-place match. The first shift saw much back-and-forth action in Hoffman, Kang and senior Steve Harrington’s matches. Kang lost his regular season match against the Bulldogs but pulled through in the fifth game this time to put Princeton on the board first. Yale came close after losses in the fifth game from Hoffman and Harrington reduced Princeton’s lead to 4-3, but Dinodia won his match to secure the victory for the Tigers. Ward’s match once again went to a fifth game, in which he clinched the win for Princeton at 6-3.

After a 12-3 overall season and a 6-1 record in the Ivy League, the third-place finish was not what the Tigers were expecting, but they are looking at the bigger picture.

“I think it was a good weekend for us,” Harrity said. “It was my last time playing for the team, and I had a great time. Obviously it was a heartbreak when we lost to Harvard, but I think we fought hard and played well and it just, unfortunately, didn’t go our way.”

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

Despite being the 2011 individual national champion, Harrity did not advance to last year’s final. Still, he has beaten Farag and Columbia’s Ramit Tandon, the other 2012 finalist, this year. The individual championship begins March 1 in Hartford, Conn. There, all eyes will once again be on Farag and Harrity.

“It brings a little more pressure too,” Harrity said of his victory on Saturday. “But it definitely gives me confidence for next weekend.”