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(12/07/16 4:55am)
Morgan Steelman is a force to be reckoned with as a freshman on Princeton Women’s Squash, racking up two more wins against Williams and Middlebury this weekend. Ranked No. 1 at the U13, U15, and U17 age levels and reaching as high as No. 5 in U19, she will undoubtedly be vital to the depth and strength of the team as the season progresses. She took time off the court to sit down with The Daily Princetonian to talk dance moves and desert islands.
(11/17/16 11:33pm)
Princeton women’s squash are looking to open their season with a bang, taking on Stanford, Franklin & Marshall, and George Washington universities at home this weekend.
(11/16/16 11:20pm)
Fresh off of a team training trip to Greece and riding the momentum from a 12-4 season, Princeton Women’s Squash look to replicate their success from last year, boasting seven clean 9-0 sweeps and reaching a national ranking of 3.
(11/08/16 8:21pm)
Freshman Gaby Pollner has already made her mark on the Women’s Tennis team, racking up decisive singles and doubles wins in the Fall. Ranked No. 1 in Florida and No. 13 in the nation before she came to Princeton, Pollner will be sure to replicate this success as the team goes into its spring season. Pollner sat down with the Daily Princetonian to talk all things tennis, from pump up songs to post match celebrations.
(10/25/16 4:35pm)
Junior Luke Gamble has started off the tennis preseason with a bang as the #21 doubles team in the nation with his partner, sophomore Alex Day. After the two clinched an impressive victory against the #1 team from Oklahoma State at the ITA All-Americans earlier this month, they continued their commanding level of play in the ITA Northeast Regional Semifinals at Penn this weekend, winning four matches before exiting in the semifinals to Columbia. This week, Gamble sat down with the Daily Princetonian to talk all things tennis.
(10/17/16 7:06pm)
Senior Caroline Joyce and sophomore Nicole Kalhorn handily defeated the ITA’s No. 4 doubles team of University of Michigan’s Brienne Minor and Mira Ruder-Hook 6-2 in the highlight of Princeton Women’s Tennis’ showing at the Wolverine Invitational hosted by the University of Michigan this past weekend.In Princeton’s only doubles win on Saturday, Joyce and Kalhorn opened the match with a decisive 3-0 lead before closing out the set, putting the pair up 4-2 this season.University of Miami and University of Washington also played in the invitational with three days of play from Friday to Sunday.Princeton picked up four of eight singles wins on Friday. Freshman Gaby Pollner rallied in the third set to defeat Miami’s Clara Tanielian 1-6, 7-5, 6-4, while junior Sara Goodwin closed out two sets against Miami’s Sara Culbertson 6-4, 6-1, and freshmen Tiffany Chen and Clare McKee beat their Michigan opponents in three sets, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 and 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 respectively.Princeton doubles also made an impressive debut on Friday, winning three of four matches. McKee and Pollner as well as senior Sivan Krems and junior Katrine Steffenson beat their Washington opponents 6-2 and 6-3, and Chen and Goodwin followed with a 6-3 win against Miami.After her success in doubles, Kalhorn had Princeton’s only singles win on Saturday against Miami’s Dominika Paterova 7-5, 6-1. Krems gave No. 32 Yolimar Ogando of Miami a tough fight in three sets, losing 4-6, 7-5, 4-6.The Tigers closed out Sunday with two singles wins against Washington with Krems and Kalhorn bringing home 6-1, 6-3, and 7-5, 6-1 wins, respectively.In a notable match of the day, Pollner demonstrated her tenacity in a nailbiter 6-7 (17) first set against No. 117-ranked Ana Madcur of Miami before falling 6-1 in the second.Princeton split doubles on the last day of the Invitational, with Pollner and Krems edging out Miami 6-4 and Chen and Steffenson executing a flawless 6-0 win over Miami.With promising performances under their belt, the Tigers will look to build upon their upward momentum at Yale in the ITA/USTA Northeast Regional Championship starting on Oct. 20.
(10/10/16 4:56pm)
Facing off against the nation’s top ranked doubles team in the first round of the main doubles draw at the ITA All-American tournament on Thursday, senior Alex Day and junior Luke Gamble battled back from a 1-6 start to take the second set 6-3 and lead 12-11 in the deciding tiebreaker.With the match point resting on him, Day stepped in on his return to pound a backhand winner down the line and upset the No. 1 team in the country.“I felt absolute ecstasy when we won. I didn’t believe we could do it. You almost black out for a second,” said Gamble.Standing at No. 21 in this fall's preseason rankings, Gamble and Day were not expected to advance against Oklahoma State’s Julian Cash and Arjun Kadhe, especially after the decisive first set in Cash and Kadhe’s favor.It was coach Damian Hume’s guidance that Gamble credits with Princeton’s surge of confidence that helped them take the second set.“Hume was integral in helping us bring out our potential. He was the one who got us in the right mental spot of playing shot for shot and having fun, which helped us loosen up,” said Gamble.“I went and I watched a bunch of videos on them beforehand, so I got a good count on them. The biggest part of the game plan was not overthinking it and have fun playing against the No. 1 team in the country, because you don’t get that opportunity too many times,” added Hume.Day began connecting with his volleys to put balls away at net and Gamble was able to force errors and gain control of the point off of his serve, tying the set score at 1-1.Princeton capitalized on the small window of opportunity given to them by Oklahoma State in the 10-point match-deciding tiebreaker, edging their opponents out by a mere two points.Gamble and Day looked to recreate their success in the quarterfinals against Gergely Madarasz and Ricardo Mendinilla of Purdue, but couldn’t manage to close out the 10-point tiebreaker as they did in the first round, falling 6-1, 2-6, 6-10.“We were playing really well in the first set and I thought we were the better team, but in doubles it comes down to a few points with small margins and windows. Us playing so well early on ironically gave them a little window, because we got confident and we left the playing point by point thing by already thinking ahead to quarterfinals,” said Gamble.Princeton’s volleys that helped them to take the first match abandoned them in the second.“Our feet stopped moving and we missed a few easy shots,” said Gamble.Day, Gamble, and junior Diego Vives were defeated earlier in the tournament on Oct. 10 in the qualifying singles draw.Day forced his USC opponent Rob Bellamy to a third set before falling 4-6, 6-2, 1-6.“Alex played a tough guy who hasn’t lost a match this whole year. That guy played some really good big points that Alex couldn’t close out,” said Hume.Vives and Gamble fell in straight sets; Vives to Baylor’s Jimmy Bendeck 2-6, 0-6 and Gamble to George Washington University’s Julius Tverijonas 5-7, 3-6.Vives and Day competed in the qualifying singles consolation draw the following day but couldn’t pick up wins for Princeton.Jurence Mendoza of Oklahoma State defeated Day 6-2, 6-0, and Vives lost to Illinois’ Julian Childers 6-7(0), 2-6.“My tennis is not where I want it to be. Luckily that’s why we have the fall. It’s a good chance to get as many tough matches as we can so that we are able to be in the best shape possible for the spring … I just need to keep working and results will start coming,” said Vives.With regionals in two weeks, Day and Gamble in particular are looking to build upon their upward momentum from their performance at All-Americans.Said Gamble, “The win gives us new and higher sights and more belief for sure. One of the things Alex and I struggle with is our consistency. We can lose to anyone else but beat really good teams. Our strengths are in our serves, forehands, and volleys, so if we’re hitting them we can pull ahead.”
(09/26/16 5:54pm)
Princeton Men’s Tennis co-hosted the Ivy-Plus Invitational with Penn from Sept. 23 to Sept. 25, bringing in players from each of the eight Ivy League schools in addition to Drexel, University of Tennessee, Marist University, SUNY Buffalo, Penn State, St. John’s, Wisconsin, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Bryant.Taking home a total of 23 singles wins and 9 doubles wins over three days of match play, with only 20 singles losses and 7 doubles losses, the team had some standout performances to be proud of.Freshman Payton Holden emerged as an asset for Princeton, winning his doubles flight with sophomore Jimmy Wasserman at the Penn site after a crucial 9-7 win against Penn State in the finals. Holden also placed third in his singles draw with a 5-7, 6-4, 10-4 win over a seasoned Cornell player.“Chris Vrabel [Cornell ‘17] is a pretty tough player. He played No. 4 [singles] last year, and [this year] Payton came back from a set down to win against him which was awesome as a freshman,” said Assistant Coach Damian Hume.Holden said, “Coach Damian was a huge help in my singles match and gave me tips that helped me win it in a tiebreaker. I focused on playing more conservatively and trying to reduce my errors. As long as I made the ball and played more tactically it helped me win a lot of key points and big situations that changed the momentum of the match.”“It’s really nice to start off strong, because a big worry for incoming freshmen is that maybe you don’t belong, so beating older players on other teams is a big confidence booster overall,” he added.Holden’s partner Wasserman also had a successful weekend and went 3-1 in singles, clinching the finals of the singles consolation 6-3, 7-5 against Bryant.Wasserman credits his success to “being relaxed, having fun, and going for my shots.”Over at the Princeton site, junior Kial Kaiser advanced the farthest in the singles draw out of any of his teammates, reaching the finals with three three wins before he had to pull out due to injury.Kaiser demonstrated his tenacity and grit in his semifinal match against Harvard, fighting off three match points to win 6-0, 3-6, 7-6 (7-3). His performance under pressure helped swing the match’s momentum his way.“One thing our coach has been stressing is mental toughness and I’ve been working on reducing the negative emotion I show on court. Instead of losing a couple games in a row because things are going bad, I’ll only lose a couple of points,” Kaiser said.Kaiser went on to play doubles with junior Diego Vives, suffering a disappointing 8-7 loss in the first round to St. John’s despite reaching three match points.Vives, who played No. 1 for the team last year, said, “I think the first match is always tough. We have a lot of room to improve but we’re in a good position and the guys are motivated. Everybody is working hard so we’re going to be ready for the spring which is when we play as a team.”“Usually when the players come in the beginning of the season they’re a little rusty and the first tournament is about dusting off cobwebs a bit. More matches for the guys will be helpful for us and what we need to work on,” Coach Hume added.Since the team did not graduate any members from the starting lineup last season, it is looking to develop its chemistry and integrate its three freshmen into a deep lineup.“The freshmen bring great attitude and intensity, so it’s about incorporating them into what the older guys are trying to do. The freshmen have a great perspective and can add a ton, so once we get that to click, the sky’s the limit,” new Volunteer Assistant Coach Ian Van Cott said.Hoping to improve and build upon the momentum from the Ivy-Plus Invitational, the team will send three players to the Men’s All-American Championships in Tulsa, Okla. this weekend.Junior Luke Gamble and senior Alex Day, a formidable team ranked N0. 21 in the nation, will be playing the main draw of doubles before going on to play qualifying singles along with Vives.Vives said , “It’s the toughest tournament nationally in the fall for college tennis with great competition. I’ve been playing a lot of the players there since juniors, so I’m excited. It’s going to be a good opportunity to get good wins and experiences.”