Young Players Notch Impressive Victories

The Harvard women’s squash team left its mark on the CSA Individual Championships at the Naval Academy with both titles and upsets, and for the second consecutive year returned to Cambridge with some hardware for the trophy case.

Sophomore Johanna Snyder, snubbed by the selection committee for placement in the A draw, stormed through the 51-person Holleran Cup, or “B” Bracket as the No. 1 seed to seize the title.

“I was a little disappointed not to be in the main draw,” Snyder said. “But I gave it my all...And it paid off.”

After receiving a first-round bye, Snyder began her tournament run Friday afternoon with an easy, 9-1, 9-3, 9-2 victory over Hamilton’s Kelly Whipple. She continued her strong play on day two with victories over Tara Wadhwa and Jessica Balderston, both of Yale, 3-0 and 3-1, respectively, to land a spot in Sunday’s semifinals.

After falling behind 2-0 in her semifinal match against Princeton’s Mary O’Toole Sunday, Snyder stormed back to seize control and won in five, 8-10, 0-9, 9-2, 9-2, 9-5. In the finals against Princeton’s Margaret Kent, Snyder was literally two points away from falling in straight sets, but managed to hold a precarious, 10-9, 5-9, 10-9 lead through the first three games. Snyder put the match away in the fourth with a convincing, 9-2, win to take the title.

Snyder, who played in the fourth flight during the regular season—compiling a 6-6 match record—upped her play and nearly doubled her win total with her five victories during the course of the tournament.

“It just highlights how much the team has raised their individual play,” Harvard coach Satinder Bajwa said of Snyder’s performance. “Really fantastic.”

Freshmen June Tiong, Alisha Mashruwala, Bethan Williams and sophomore Katherine O’Donnell competed in the Ramsay, or “A,” bracket while sophomore Charlene Neo joined Snyder in the “B” Bracket.

Tiong, Harvard’s top flight and the No. 7 seed, was the most successful, becoming the only freshman player to advance to the semifinals of the Ramsay Cup. She cruised through her day one matches, notching 3-0 and 3-1 victories. On Saturday she found herself in an 0-8 hole against Trinity’s Tehani Guruge but won 10 consecutive points to grab the first game 10-8 and pulled out the match, 10-8, 9-5, 9-3. Her run would end in the semifinals against Penn’s Kristen Lange, last year’s tournament runner-up. She fell behind early and was unable to mount a comeback, falling 3-0 to Lange for the second time this season.

Mashruwala reached the quarterfinals before falling to Lange, 3-0. Her tournament highlight came in the second round where she rallied from two games down to knock off 2006 national champion and ex-Crimson star Lily Lorentzen of Stanford, 2-9, 4-9, 9-0, 10-9, 9-0.

But perhaps the biggest surprise of the tournament came in the play of Williams who in the opening round knocked off Princeton’s Amanda Siebert, the top flight on the national champion Tigers, to log one of the biggest upsets. Williams, who played in the fifth flight for Harvard during the regular season, dropped the first game, 4-9, but began working Siebert around the court and took control of the match, rattling off three straight games, 10-8, 9-6, 9-4, to record the big upset.

“It was one of those days where you put up one of the best shows of your life,” Bajwa said of Williams’ performance. “She played a great match and did everything she needed to do both with her strategy and performance and it resulted in a win.”

Williams could not ride the momentum in the second round, however, falling to Garuge of Trinity, 3-1.

After losing in the second round of the Hollaran Cup, Neo won three matches and reached the finals of the consolation draw before falling to Dartmouth’s Hannah Conant, 9-5, 4-9, 9-7, 9-7.

—Staff writer Barrett P. Kenny can be reached at bpkenny@fas.harvard.edu.