
Yale Athletics
Eight Elis from the men’s and women’s squash teams traveled to New York City to compete in the Collegiate Squash Association — CSA — Individual National Championships.
The tournament, held from Jan. 25-28, took place at Open Squash FiDi, a nonprofit squash organization in the heart of Manhattan.
On the men’s side, captain Maxwell Orr ’25, Arav Bhagwati ’26, Tad Carney ’26 and Lachlan Sutton ’27 competed in the Pool Trophy main bracket for the title of Men’s CSA National Champion. They competed against 28 other players from various colleges. According to Yale Athletics, the last Eli to win the Pool Trophy and earn the title was Victor Wagner ’83 in 1982.
First years Heng Wai Wong ’28 and Spring Ma ’28 entered the Ramsay Cup bracket for the Women’s CSA National Champion title. They sought to bring the title back to Yale, with the last Bulldog to hold it being Millie Tomlinson ’14 in 2011. Mika Bardin ’26 competed in the Holleran Cup East draw, while Meha Shah ’28 participated in the Holleran Cup South bracket.
The different brackets aim to divide a team’s top four players in a way that they will not compete against one another, according to Bardin. The Pool Trophy is the main men’s bracket, while the Ramsay Cup is the main women’s draw.
On Saturday, Orr played against Trinity College’s Joachim Chuah, Bhagwati competed against Dartmouth’s William Aube, Carney faced Cornell’s Arnaav Sareen and Sutton took on Columbia’s Arhan Chandra.
Prior to the long weekend of matches, the Bulldogs worked hard to prepare.
“I really tried to prepare myself both physically and mentally for a tough weekend. Because we’re normally playing one-two matches at a time, it was a different experience,” Carney wrote to the News. “I tried to think about it one match at a time, knowing that the good few weeks of training I had done beforehand had prepped me well for a long weekend of squash.”
The Elis competed against other players at a high level with mixed success. Although Orr was not victorious in the Pool Trophy draw, he defeated two opponents in the consolation bracket. Sutton was successful, beating Arhan and David Costales from Harvard and making it to the quarterfinals. He then fell to Omar Hafez from Penn. Bhagwati won his match against Aube but fell to UVA’s Karim Elbarbary.
The team rallied behind Carney, who aced Sareen in his first match. In his second match, he picked up a victory against UVA’s JP Tew. Advancing to the quarterfinals, Carney played Nicholas Spizzirri from Penn. Carney lost the first two sets out of five but came back and won the last three. Successful in this match, Carney kept his eye on the coveted Pool Trophy as he entered the semi-finals held at the squash courts in Grand Central Station. Unfortunately, Carney fell to number one seed Salman Khalil from Penn who eventually claimed the champion title.
Although Carney said he was disappointed he didn’t make it to the finals, he was proud of his performance over the weekend.
“Getting to the semifinals was super tough physically — I played three hard matches leading up to them, and am very proud of some of the results I had to get there…I played the big moments well while staying consistent,” Carney wrote to the News. “Getting to play in Grand Central was motivating me throughout the weekend, and it was one of the coolest experiences I have ever had while playing squash. It, of course, would have been nice to go further, but I am happy with how the tournament went overall.”
On the women’s team, Wong competed against Penn’s Savannah Margot Ingledew and Ma took on Harvard’s Caroline Fouts in the Ramsay Cup draw. Despite losing the first game, Wong picked up the next three games to beat Ingledew. In her second match, she emerged victorious against Lucie Stefanoni from Harvard. However, Cornell’s Yee Xin Ying swept her in the quarterfinals. Ma fell to Fouts in her first match. In the Holleran South bracket, Shah picked up the necessary three games to beat Emma Kate Watts-Roy from Bowdoin before withdrawing.
Bardin aced Cecilia Curran from Georgetown in the Holleran East semifinals and then took on Trinity’s Lujan Palacios in the finals. Bardin dropped the first game but made a huge comeback, taking the next three to become the Holleran East Champion.
Reflecting on her emotions as she faced Palacios, Bardin shared that she was nervous but determined.
“It was tough going into a match against a player on the best team in the nation, my nerves definitely took over at first, losing the first game,” Bardin wrote to the News.
Bardin overcame her nerves, successfully taking down her opponent.
“I managed to calm down to enjoy the fight and came back to win in a tight four games. I always love those high-pressure moments, and it was such a pleasure to get to bring back some hardware for Yale.”
Returning to New Haven, the Elis will host Cornell and Columbia at the Brady Squash Center on Saturday, Feb. 1 and Sunday, Feb. 2, respectively.