Three Cavaliers from both of Virginia’s squash squads competed in the CSA Individual Championships over the weekend, in New York, N.Y. — playing against the premier collegiate squash players from around the country.
The field was divided into the Pool Trophy and Ramsay Cup, consisting of 64 men and women from the nation's best teams, respectively. On the men’s side, sophomore Juan Jose Torres Lara and freshman Juan Irisarri received byes to the round of 32, while freshman Charlotte Pastel received the same bye in the Ramsay Cup.
Pool Trophy
In the first round of the tournament, senior JP Tew sliced through his opponent, winning in straight sets to book a place in the next round with his teammates Torres Lara and Irisarri. All three members of the Cavaliers’ men’s team would go on to advance to the round of 16, with Irisarri and Torres Lara comfortably, and Tew needing an 11-9 fifth-set winner to overcome Princeton’s senior Avi Agarwal.
However, the round of 16 would not bear the same fruit as the previous ones did. Torres Lara was dispatched in straight sets, and while Tew and Irisarri both held one-set leads during their contests, they would also lose in four and five sets, respectively.
Ramsay Cup
On the women’s side, sophomore Maria Min and senior Lina Tammam were victorious, taking out their adversaries from Columbia and Drexel. In the following round, Pastel showed why she deserved the bye, defeating freshman Vicky Lai from Cornell, only conceding four total points across three sets.
Min and Tammam weren’t as fortunate. Tammam fell in five sets to Stanford’s sophomore Amelie Haworth, while Min lost out to Harvard’s junior Lucie Stefanoni in straight sets.
Pastel would also fail to advance any further, defeated by the Tigers’ freshman Alexandra Jaffe. In the consolation bracket, however, Tammam showed she wouldn’t go down so easily. After breezing through opponents from the Crimson and Tufts, she would eventually go down in a five-set thriller to Princeton’s junior Emma Trauber.
All in all, despite not advancing past the round of 16 on either the men’s or women’s side of play, Virginia showed their depth, as every squad member that attended got at least one win — not a bad achievement in light of the extreme level of the competition. With the exposure of playing the nation’s best, the Cavaliers will hope to use their experience to come back stronger in team play.
Up next for the men’s team is a home battle against No. 19 Western Ontario Friday at 4:30 p.m., while the women will test themselves against Georgetown Saturday at 3 p.m.
Read More
Women’s basketball barely outlasts Wake Forest in triple overtime thriller
By Aimee Crosbie | 8 hours ago“I am just really proud of our resiliency,” Agugua-Hamilton said. “We got discombobulated, we weren’t on the same page and we had to find a way to push through that. We were able to do that, and I’m just very proud of our group.”
Virginia’s new-look starting lineup packs plenty of punch in the field and at the plate
By Ben McNiff | 16 hours agoThe new-look Cavaliers will debut in the Kickin’ Chicken Classic in Conway, S.C. — their first matchup comes Feb. 6 against Arkansas.
Vivian Yang plays for her team, growth and … elephants?
By Thomas Baxter | 16 hours agoYang has quickly established herself as a star for the Cavaliers, earning the nod as Virginia’s top singles player in five of its six duals thus far.
