Women's Squash: Possible rematches loom at Howe Cup

The last time the Tigers (10-3 overall, 4-3 Ivy League) won the Howe Cup was 2009, when Princeton experienced an undefeated season, culminating in a 5-4 win over Harvard at the Crimson’s home courts. In the following years, Princeton would lose its grip on the title to Harvard and then Yale.

Despite its loss to Yale in last year’s semifinals, the Tigers concluded the 2010-11 season with a thrilling home win to take third place over Trinity, to which they had lost 8-1 in the regular season.

After ending the previous season on such a high note, the Tigers hope they can reproduce similar results in this year’s tournament.

A decisive 8-1 win over Trinity two weeks ago moved Princeton from fifth to third place, giving Princeton a considerably higher chance at advancing to the semifinals. Whereas No. 4 Penn and No. 5 Trinity will have to battle it out on Friday in the first half of the draw, Princeton will face No. 6 Stanford in the second half. The Tigers defeated Stanford 9-0 at home earlier this month and hope to repeat this performance this weekend.

The teams that stand to offer Princeton the biggest challenges are Harvard and Yale, the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds, respectively. Harvard and Yale have constituted two of the Tigers’ three losses this season; the other loss was to Penn, which will most likely be knocked into the third-place match by Harvard if it manages to get past Trinity.

If the Tigers win on Friday against Stanford, Princeton can expect to meet Yale in the semifinals. Sophomores Libby Eyre and Alex Sawin scored the only wins for the Tigers against the Bulldogs in their match against Yale in early February, but the match was a lot closer than the score conveys — three players lost five-game matches — and Princeton knows it can turn the score around this weekend.

In the event that Princeton defeats Yale, the Tigers will advance to the finals, most likely against Harvard. Harvard is led by freshman Amanda Sobhy, the 2012 Junior world champion and five-time winner on the WISPA tour who is currently ranked the 28th-best women’s player in the world.

However, the Tigers won’t allow the earlier losses to Harvard to intimidate them. In mid-January, Princeton just barely conceded an extremely close 5-4 match to Harvard. The results came down to the final pairing, and, despite the loss, Princeton proved that it could compete with the top-ranked team in the nation.

Furthermore, the Tigers demonstrated last season that they have the ability to bring everything together for the most important weekend of the season. Keeping in mind the 5-4 victory over Trinity the previous year after the Tigers had lost to the Bantams in the regular season, the Tigers know they possess what it takes to compete with the best.