Squash Dawgs win 1st place in Emerging Teams Division in Nationals!
February 27, 2005
The undergraduate team came out on top of the six-member "emerging teams" division
at the Intercollegiate National Championships at Harvard's Murr Courts this weekend. A
4-1 win over a tough Notre Dame team sealed the win after 5-0 victories over
USC and Kenyon College. Performances were outstanding up and down the line. Noteworthy
performances included a 5-game win by Saumil Gandhi over USC's # 1 Tyler Kurlas
and a remarkable comeback victory by #5 Ritwik Kejriwal against Notre Dame. Ritwik
lost the first two games 9-0,9-0, then stepped up the pace to win the third,
overcame three match points against in the fourth, and finally pulled out the
victory in the fifth. Norman Wilson dispatched his opponents with relative
ease in the #3 position. Julian Wolfson at #2 was tough as always but faced
a strong and determined #2 player from Notre Dame for the Husky's only loss of
the weekend. Ryan Antonio dug deep and ran hard to save a hard-fought win
at #4 against USC.
Congratulations to the players who went and also to those who didn't but who
worked to make this first season a success.
Squash Dawgs head for Nationals
February 20, 2005
Nationals
The Squash Dawgs are seeded first in the "Emerging Teams" division
and will play at the Murr Courts at Harvard University 2/25-27. The team
will compete against teams from USC, Notre Dame, Bryan, Bard and Kenyon. This
is
a special "five-man" division as opposed to the main draws which
feature nine-man teams. Unfortunately, school commitments prevented the team
from entering the main draw despite an in-season ranking of #33 which would
have qualifed them as the first seed in the lowest intercollegiate division.
Lakeside School
On February 10, the team hosted an 8-man team from local high school Lakeside.
Lakeside, the best of three local high school teams, took matches at #1 and
#8 with the Husky team taking the other six matches. The main goal of this
match was to get the local high school players to see that the UW squash
program is up and going-our "recruiting" program is underway.
Columbia Athletic Club
February 17th the Kirkland-based team from the Columbia Athletic Club brought
7 players to compete with the undergrad team. Again, the team came through,
winning all but one of the matches. This is the last organized activity
for the full team this season, with only Nationals remaining for the 5-man
group.
Many thanks to all the local squashers who saw their court time limited
on Fridays and Sundays by team practices.
Squash Dawgs take Second at West Coast Round Robin
February 7, 2005
Stanford, Cal, USC and UW revived the collegiate West Coast
Round Robin on February 4-6 with matches at Stanford and Cal. The event
had fallen by the wayside during the transition years from hardball to softball
but with
new teams at UW and USC, 2005 marks the start of a new era.
Stanford easily defeated Cal and USC without dropping a match. UW’s
#1 player, Saumil Gandhi, pulled out his “A” game to defeat Andrew
Burmon of Stanford, 3-0, amid the approving roars of his Husky teammates. Despite
good performances from Julian Wolfson at #2 and Norman Wilson at #3, the Dawgs
did not have the depth to challenge the Cardinal as they dominated the lower
ladder positions and took home the West Coast Champion's trophy.
USC went down 5-1 with the matches again marked by strong performances at the
top three positions.
Initial concerns about playing the Bears in their home den on 20’ courts
(one foot narrower than standard) melted away as match results rolled in. Tilak
Pun, despite a month-long layoff, won 3-1 at the #8 position and #4 Ryan Antonio
cruised to a 3-0 victory to give the Dawgs an early lead. Julian Wolfson
at #2 defeated talented athlete Greg Jizmagian (a 4:07 miler!) 3-1 and Gaurav
Mehta at #5 thrashed his opponent 1,1,0 to seal the victory.
Lakeside School, Columbia Athletic Club Next Up
Next on the schedule are two tune-up matches. The team will play local
prep school Lakeside on February 10 from 3:30-5:30. Come on out and watch
some possible future Huskies play the current team. On February 17 the
Columbia Athletic Club from across the Lake will challenge us at 7PM—another
opportunity to root the team on.
Nationals
The season wraps up for the team with participation in the Intercollegiate
National Championships in Boston on February 25-27. The UW will enter
the “emerging teams” division with a five-man team, even though
our performance to date would qualify us for a decent placement in the main
event (9-man teams). Unfortunately, exams and school prevent several
key players from making the trip. Our goal: win the five-man emerging
teams division, and return next year with a 9-man team.
Many thanks
Thanks again for the support both financial and intangible from UW squashers. And
our apologies to those who’ve come to play and found the team practicing
on the courts on Fridays and Sundays. The season wraps up this month,
so the courts will not be booked by the team. However, most team members
will be around and playing on their own, so keep an eye on how they are developing. The
team has received no money from the school, so the travel is 100% funded by
donations—if you would like to provide support (tax deductible) we’d
be glad to e-mail the donation form to you (you can e-mail to bish@u.washington.edu
for an electronic copy of the form).
Husky Squash’s Successful Roadtrip
January 17, 2005
The Squash Club’s undergrad team returned last night from its first roadtrip—to
Philadelphia. Three matches, three losses. But based on what
the team learned and the camaraderie developed it was a successful trip.
The team played Amherst, George Washington, and Haverford, teams currently
ranked #14, #23, and #28 respectively in the Collegiate Squash Association
poll. The
team started the day by watching #4 Penn crush #14 Amherst and gained an appreciation
for the high level of squash being played at Eastern colleges.
Amherst was clearly in control from the spin of the racket on each court, with
no Husky scoring more than 6 points in a game, resulting in a loss of all nine
matches by 3-0 scores. However, the experience gained was invaluable
and helped raise the Husky level of play in the next two team matches.
Results against the George Washington Colonials were not much better, with only
one game won in the match, by #9 player Jae-Woo Ha.
The team came to the Sunday match with Haverford a bit disheartened. A
stellar performance by #2 Julian Wolfson led off the day as matches #2,#4,#6,#8
and #9 were played first (simultaneously). Julian won 9-4,9-0,9-5 playing
his best squash of the year. #9 Jae Ha went down to a tough 3-1 defeat
and the Huskies were down 4 matches to 1, needing to win all four of the second
group of matches. They came close, as an energized Norman Wilson at #3
beat Haverford captain Nick Saint 9-3,9-0,9-5 and #1 Saumil Gandhi had a convincing
3-1. The match of the day was Gaurav Mehta’s victory at #7 over Haverford’s
Mike Montesano. Down 2-1 after the first three games, Gaurav fended off
match points by his opponent to win 10-9 in the fourth, and then took a hard-fought
fifth game by 9-7. This match may have been the most meaningful of the
weekend in that the whole team was there to cheer on Gaurav and energize him
in the fourth game. The concept of collegiate squash as a team sport
seemed to jell in those moments.
Next Challenges
The team will test themselves in individual competition at the Seattle Open this
coming weekend, and then prepare for the Western Championships at Stanford and
Cal the weekend of February 5-6.
Nationals
The US Intercollegiate Nationals will be held in Boston the weekend of February
24-27, 2005. There is an “emerging team” division for 5-man
squads but our performance against Cal (we won 9-0) and our close result against
Haverford mean that we want to shoot to enter the regular 9-man draw. We
are about $3000 short of the funds we need to do that, so any of you who are
able to contribute can print out the attached form and send it to the University
of Washington, Office of Development, 1200 Fifth Ave, Suite 1215, Seattle WA
98101. We appreciate the help many of you have already given to allow us
to go to Philadelphia and California, and we’ll keep you updated on our
progress.