Friday, November 15, 2013
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The IVY Scrimmage was a great opportunity to see our guys and girls perform under match conditions. It’s especially exciting for the freshman to test themselves against college competitors for the first time with weight of the team score on their shoulders.
Saturday
In the first round, we drew the Brown Men and Columbia Women. Despite the gap in ability, both opponents gave us a fight and made sure our guys and girls had to earn their victories.
At 5:30, the men drew Cornell and the women, Yale.
The men beat Cornell 8-1. On a per-man basis however, the matches were much more difficult than the scoreline would indicate. Brandon McLaughlin sustained an injury to his toe after sliding it into a glass wall during his match against Aditya Jagtap. He tried to continue, but was unable to lunge and had to retire.
Freshman Bryan Koh (Nigel’s younger brother) won a hard-fought four gamer win over Rishi Jalan of Cornell. Rishi has a hard hitting style and smoked at least a dozen winners from all sorts of positions. It was a very chippy match; full of physical play and chitchat with the referee. Bryan did an excellent job staying calm and focused.
On the women’s side, Yale took three of the first four matches. We came back to tie at 3-3 with great wins by Michelle Gemmell, Izzy Dowling and Katie Tutrone. Sobhy brought us to 4-3 with a win over Millie Tomlinson, the former National Individual Champion who was playing some of the best squash we have seen from her. Yale tied 4-4 with Kim Hay shooting the lights out over Haley Mendez.
It was down to Dileas MacGowan, our freshman from Toronto at number seven, who found herself playing for a deciding match. She pulled out a tactical and gutsy 3-1 win over Gwen Tighlman.
Freshman Caroline Monrad (cousin of junior Julie Monrad) got some good experience at the number ten spot and will look to work her way onto the top nine throughout the season.
Sunday
Both the men and women made it to the finals against Yale and Princeton, respectively. Both were rematches of the last year’s battles to decide the IVY Title.
The women fought hard but fell to the Tigers 5-4. Highlights included Katie Tutrone taking down the hard-running canadian Nicole Bunyan at the three position and Saumya Karki’s hard-fought win over Rachel Leizman in five.
“Haley and I are really proud of everyone’s effort this weekend. The freshmen have done a great job.” Said Co-Captain Natasha Anzik.
The men faced a Yale team that was weakened by injuries. Dylan Murray’s length was a bit too loose against Neil Martin and he was forced to do the lions’ share of the running. He fell to the Irishman in four games.
Brandon McLaughlin was able to subdue the rangy Malaysian freshman Kah Wah Cheong in three games.
It was great to have the support of Brandon’s brother, freshman Devin McLaughlin, who came down from Cambridge to cheer us on. He has been recovering quickly from surgery on a bone in his ankle and we are happy to hear that he is off of crutches!
We were very pleased with how our freshman performed in their introduction to college squash. While we found areas where everyone can improve, they showed guts and resiliency overall.
We owe a big thanks to to the men’s and women’s parents for providing a wonderful dinner on Saturday night and (heathy!) sandwiches and drinks throughout the weekend.
Finals
H Women vs. Princeton L (5-4)
Amanda Sobhy 3-0 Maria Elena Ubina 3-0
Haley Mendez 1-3 Libby Eyre
Katie Tutrone 3-2 Nicole Bunyan
Saumya Karki 3-2 Rachel Leizman
Michelle Gemmell 3-0 Alex Lunt
Julianne Chu 2-3 Hallie Dewey
Dileas MacGowan 1-3 Lexi Saunders
Izzy Dowling 0-3 Alex Sawin
Megan Murray 1-3 Tara Harrington
Caroline Monrad 0-3 Alex Toth
Finals
H Men vs. Yale W (6-3)
Brandon McLaughlin 3-0 Kah Wah Cheong
Gary Power 1-3 T.J. Dembinsky
Dylan Murray 1-3 Neil Martin
Nigel Koh 2-3 Zak Lehman
Bryan Koh 3-1 Sam Fenwick
Tyler Olson 3-2 Charlie Wyatt
Nick Hopcroft 3-0 Joey Roberts
Tommy Mullaney 3-0 Pelaj Bajwa
Sam Goldberg 3-1 Huw Robinson
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