SQUASH | Two wins from the title

By
Staff Reporter
Friday, February 4, 2011

Both the No. 2 men’s and No. 2 women’s squash teams are just two wins away from Ivy League titles.

After coming off two much-needed victories against Princeton, the two teams will try to knock down one of those wins as they take on Brown this Saturday at the Brady Squash Center.

Kenneth Chan ’13 has been playing at the No. 2 spot for the men’s squash team this year. The Bulldogs can clinch the Ivy League title with two more conference wins.
Florian Koenigsberger
Kenneth Chan ’13 has been playing at the No. 2 spot for the men’s squash team this year. The Bulldogs can clinch the Ivy League title with two more conference wins.

The men’s team (11–1, 4–0 Ivy) is trying to win its second consecutive conference championship and a victory against No. 12 Brown (6–3, 0–3) is critical.

“After the high of beating Princeton last week, we need to stay focused and make sure we take care of business on Saturday,” captain Naishadh Lalwani ’11 said. “It is important for us to put on a good performance and set ourselves up for Harvard next week.”

The men are coming off a big 5–4 victory against Ivy foe No. 3 Princeton, thanks to Lalwani’s win in the final match.

Brown has struggled in conference play this year, losing to Harvard, Princeton and Penn. The Bears will be returning to the Brady Squash Center for the second time this year, having competed at the Yale Round Robin. The team did not play against the Elis at the event, but defeated St. Lawrence, 6–3, and Middlebury, 7–2. The two wins gave the Bears a four-game win streak.

The Bulldogs were scheduled to play Middlebury on Tuesday, but the match was canceled due to inclement weather.

“Our team has been performing very well,” Lalwani said. “The only blip has been Trinity, which we will hopefully get a chance to rectify before the season ends.”

The undefeated women’s team (12–0, 4–0) will look to continue their streak and prepare for their biggest contest of the season against No. 1 Harvard next week.

Brown (5–4,0–3) has struggled thus far in Ivy League play and has failed to even win one match in their contests against Princeton, Penn and Harvard.

The Bear’s No. 1 player, Sarah Crosky, is currently ranked No. 63 in the nation. She will face No. 3 Greer, who defeated Crosky in straight games last year.

For this weekend’s contest and next weekend’s battle against Harvard, the Bulldogs will also need continued strong play from the team’s freshmen. Gwendoline Tilghman ’14 and Camilla Tomlinson ’14 have not lost a match all season. Tomlinson has only dropped one game so far this season in the team’s match against No. 3 Trinity, but she then came back and won comfortably in four games.

Both teams begin play on Saturday against the Bears at 12 p.m. at the Brady Squash Center.

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