Squash: Harrity wins CSA national championship

From 2003 through 2006, Yasser El Halaby ’06 won four straight men’s squash individual national championships. Though sophomore Todd Harrity will never equal El Halaby’s extended run of dominance, Harrity’s second-year campaign exceeded even the lofty standards set by his predecessor.

“Yasser is celebrated as Princeton’s third greatest athlete ever behind [Dick Kazmaier] and Bill Bradley,” senior co-captain Peter Sopher said. “Todd had a more dominant season than Yasser ever had. He was 20-0 and ended the year with 40 straight games won.”

In the College Squash Association individual tournament, Harrity rolled through five matches without dropping a game. In the final, he defeated Cornell’s Nick Sachvie 3-0 to become the first American to win the individual title in 21 years.

“I would have to think back a long time to find someone as dominant as Todd this year,” head coach Bob Callahan ’77 said after Harrity won the individual championship. “With the sport as deep as it is, it’s a real testament to his determination to not let up at all. No matter who Todd’s playing, he brings the same level of effort, concentration and respect for his opponent.”

During the team season, Harrity and senior co-captain Dave Letourneau formed the most dominant top-of-the-lineup pairing in college squash, going undefeated at the No. 1 and No. 2 positions.

“It was nice because we would go into matches up 2-0 before we even started,” Sopher said.

The play of Harrity and Letourneau was central to Princeton’s success. While the Tigers (12-3 overall, 5-1 Ivy League) have relied on their superior depth in past years, the team’s fortunes this season hinged largely on the performance of the top half of its lineup. The No. 5 through No. 9 players in Princeton’s line-up all moved up at least two positions in the ladder from the previous season.

Princeton finished second place in the Ivy League behind No. 2 Yale and ended the year ranked No. 3 in the country behind No. 1 Trinity and the Bulldogs. In the CSA national team championships, the Tigers lost to Yale in the semifinals. In the team’s following match, Princeton came back from a 3-0 deficit to defeat No. 4 Rochester 5-4.

“[The win over Rochester] was a great way to end our season,” Letourneau said. “I think that we had a rough start but we came together as a team and guys pulled through. It was great.”

“This year was a good year in terms of work ethic, team dynamic and guys improving across the board,” Sopher added.

Though the Tigers graduate three seniors from their lineup, the team welcomes a talented group of freshmen next season. With perennial national champion Trinity graduating its No. 2 through No. 5 players, Princeton has an opportunity to break the Bantams’ 244-match winning streak.

With four freshmen in its lineup, the women’s squash team suffered through some narrow losses early in the season. Then at team nationals, the Tigers (11-5, 4-3) played their best squash of the year en route to a third-place finish. In the semifinals, Princeton was tied with No. 1 Yale after two shifts before dropping all three matches in the final shift to lose 6-3. The Tigers then defeated No. 3 Trinity — a team to which they had lost 8-1 the previous week — in their final match of the season.

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In the individual national championships, sophomore No. 1 Julie Cerullo reached the semifinals of the A draw, while junior Katie Giovinazzo topped freshman Alex Sawin in the finals of the B draw. Next year, Cerullo, Giovinazzo and Sawin will team up with the Tigers’ four other returning starters next season as Princeton looks to builds on its late-season success in 2011.