This post was written by Hatchet reporters Rob Bartnichak and Darius Kamshad.
The College Squash Association Individual Championships came to close Sunday, and despite six Colonials in competition, GW failed to advance any competitor past the second round.
The conclusion of the Championships additionally marked the end of the 2013-14 season for GW.
Hosted by Drexel University and the University of Pennsylvania, the tournament featured six GW players, three from the men’s and three from the women’s teams. For the men: freshmen Nicolas Valderrama and Andres de Frutos and sophomore James Reiss. On the women’s side: sophomores Anna Gabriela Porras and Alejandra Porras and freshman Breanne Flynn.
For the men, the appearances came solely on rankings, while for the women, they had qualified to earn a few spots after their B-Division Kurtz Cup win last weekend.
“We had three women and three men entered in it, which is the most we’ve had qualify for the individuals,” head coach Wendy Lawrence said. “Everyone played well and improved in the rankings.”
Both de Frutos and Valderrama advanced to the second round of the national tournament, but would lose there and in their consolation matches.
Reiss’ national tournament came to an end in the first round in a heated five-set match, then losing in the second round of consolation matches. All three men competed in the lower draw for players ranked 33 through 80.
“I played a couple really good kids this weekend,” Valderrama said after the tournament. “I really enjoyed it and had a great time. Personally, I need to work really hard since we are looking forward to a stronger season next year.”
In the women’s tournament, Anna Porras and Flynn competed in the higher draw for players ranked one through 32. Anna Porras would be defeated in the second round of the nationals tournament, losing to tournament champion Amanda Sobhy of Harvard University. She would then lose in the quarterfinals of the consolation tournament.
Flynn was defeated in the first round of the main tournament and then again in her first consolation match. Alejandra Porras, who competed in the lower draw for players ranked 33-80, lost in the second round to Cornell’s Rachel Scherman. She then reached the semifinals of the consolation tournament, but was defeated Sunday morning by consolation champion Tara Harrington of Princeton University.
“All in all this is a tough tournament and always has been, it comes at the end of all the team events, and on the women’s side it comes when they had won the B division and came in 9th in the country and two major upsets against Brown and Columbia,” Lawrence said. “So they were riding so high from that so I think they were distracted in the individuals and celebrating their team win.”
The conclusion of the individual tournament marks the end of the season for both squash teams and the start of the offseason. Lawrence put an emphasis on strength and flexibility training this offseason, especially after both teams suffered through a number of injuries.
Both teams will begin limited training after spring break, and continue through the summer. Regular practices will resume in the fall semester with an anticipated season start date of September 15.
