Kennedy Wins Individual Title

Gina Kennedy ’20 topped her freshman year off by winning the individual national title this past weekend. In the final, Kennedy beat Penn’s #1, Reeham Sedky, in four close games.

Kennedy (pictured 2nd from left) is the 13th woman to win the individual title for Harvard. It’s the 17th women’s individual championship won by a Harvard player.

Kennedy was the #2 seed going into the tournament and had played #2 for the Crimson all year. On the way to the final, she beat Michele Garceau (Cornell), Lucy Beecroft (Yale), and Marie Stephan (Penn). Sedky had beaten Harvard’s Kayley Leonard in the semifinal.

The official write-up of the final is posted on the CSA website: http://collegesquashassociation.com/2017/03/05/harvards-kennedy-wins-2017-womens-individual-championship/.

Both Leonard (lost in the main draw semifinal) and Amelia Henley (lost in the main draw round of 16) became All Americans. In addition, junior Alyssa Mehta won her draw and secured a second-team All America honor.  On the men’s side, Harvard’s #1 Saad Abouaish lost against St. Lawrence’s Ahmed Bayoumy 3-2 in the quarterfinal of the main draw but will become a first-team All American.

The individual nationals concluded the 2016-17 college season. It was a successful year for the Harvard programs:

– Women’s National Team Champions
– Men’s and Women’s Ivy League Champions
– Men’s National Team Runners-Up
– Women’s Individual National Champion
– 5 All America Honors

Thank you again for all your support this season! It’s been great to see many of you at our matches and to hear from you throughout the year.

The teams will celebrate the season at the annual team banquet on March 31st (you should have received an invitation from Friends of Harvard Squash). If not, you can find more information on our events page: https://harvardsquash.org/events/.

Go Crimson!