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A bittersweet weekend for Tiger squash

It was a heartfelt weekend for the Tigers as women’s squash honored four seniors at Jadwin Gymnasium — Nicole Bunyan, Hallie Dewey, Alex Lunt and Hadley Chu. Princeton took on Columbia on Friday at home and then traveled to Ithaca for a match on Sunday. The women, currently ranked fourth, swept the weekend — routing both the Lions and the Big Red, and improving their record to 10-2. Despite a hard fight, the men were not able to come away with a team win.

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On Friday afternoon, the eighth-ranked men’s team took on fourth-ranked Columbia, but fell 6-3. Senior All-American Tyler Osborne won his match at the second position, as well as freshmen Abhimanyu Shah and Komron Shayegan. Osborne won 3-0 but battled hard in each set. Shayegan was able to make a come back from a 2-1 deficit, winning 3-2. Columbia’s number one seed, Ramit Tandon, a senior and a candidate for Ivy Player of the Year, defeated senior All-American Samuel Kang at the number one position. Freshman Jarryd Osborne, brother of Tyler Osborne, won his first game at the number four position, but was not able to win his match.

“They are one of the top teams in the country this year, and it was a good effort by the guys,” Kang said.

The women continued their winning streak on Friday with Bunyan, Dewey and Lunt all winning their matches in the 9-0 sweep. Every player on the team was able to win in three straight sets. Sophomore Maria Elena Ubina, the reigning Ivy League Rookie of the Year, fought hard and remained undefeated at the number two position. Freshman Kira Keating had one of the quickest matches, dropping only 7 points at the eighth position.

On Sunday, the women, currently ranked fourth, beat Cornell handily 8-1 in Ithaca. The momentum from their sweep on Friday carried over into their victory that will most likely secure them the fourth position for the Howe Cup to take place this coming weekend at Harvard. While the Tigers won by a large margin, Princeton played hard from every position. Lunt, Dewey and Keating all pushed through five sets for their victories. Bunyan also won her match, meaning that all three seniors finished the weekend. Ubina also came away victorious, putting up a perfect regular season.

The men fought hard, but came up short falling 5-4 to Cornell. Shah and Osborne were both undefeated this weekend, winning their matches the second and eighth positions respectively. Osborne had a strong performance, getting the job done quickly in three sets. Junior Michael LeBlanc and sophomore Ben Leizman both battled through five sets for their wins at number six and number nine, respectively. It was a upsetting match for the men, but they can only look ahead.

“This was a hugely disappointing match because we knew a place in the top flight of nationals was potentially on the line. We had our chances to win the match, but unfortunately Cornell just performed better than us at key moments and deserved to win,” Kang said.

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The men’s matchup against No. 1 ranked Trinity College this coming weekend is sure to be hard-fought. “This match is a special one, especially for the seniors, and we can’t wait to give them everything we’ve got. A few of the guys are carrying light injuries, but I think if we can get everyone healthy by then, we have a chance of doing something special on Saturday,” Kang said.

The women are also preparing themselves for stiff competition this coming weekend.

“Each and every team member is starting to play their best squash, which has been showing throughout the last few matches,” Bunyan said. “We’re a team of fighters, and often like to think of ourselves as underdogs. As long as we go in with a fighting, underdog mentality, I think we have a huge opportunity ahead of us.”

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