A
record field of fifty one collegiate squash teams, including 50 American
colleges and universities and one from Canada, will compete in the
National College Team Squash Championships, presented by Bear Stearns,
this weekend in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Defending their national
title, and their 176 match win streak, will be the Trinity College Bantams
from Hartford, Connecticut. Trinity has held the National title for nine
consecutive years. Expected to give Trinity stiff competition will be the
second ranked Princeton University Tigers. Play begins Friday
morning, February 15th, at 9:00 AM and goes through Sunday at 4:00PM.
Matches will be contested at four locations across Boston and Cambridge:
Harvard University Murr Center, MIT Zesinger Center, Northeastern University
Badger and Rosen Center, and the Belmont Hill School.
"Collegiate
squash has simply exploded over the past decade," said CSA executive director
Ron Beck, "That is displayed no where else more clearly than at this
event. We have four more teams competing this year than last, and eight more
than two years ago. In fact we have had to add another division and another
national trophy this year to make room for the growth."
Titles will
be awarded in seven divisions, with the competitors grouped into tiers of
eight teams, based on most current national rankings.
Teams
competing for the first time ever on the national college squash stage will
include a group from Tulane University in New Orleans, a new team from
the University of Vermont in Burlington, VT and a group from sports
powerhouse, the University of North Carolina.
The biggest
success story of the year, coming into the Nationals, is the rapidly
improving team representing the University of Rochester, coached by
former international pro star, Martin Heath. Heath, the former world
#4, has assembled a group of student athletes that has moved up seventeen
ranking positions in two seasons, an unprecedented rise. Rochester is
playing a special qualifying match against Williams College, prior to
the start of the draw, for a position in the top bracket for the national
championship Potter Cup. The winner of Rochester /Williams , the eighth
seed, draws defending champion Trinity in the first round. Rounding out the
top eight, who will compete for the national crown, are Princeton [2],
Harvard [3], Yale [4] (Harvard and Yale play this Wednesday to determine
their final order), Western Ontario, Canada [5], University of Pennsylvania
[6], and Dartmouth [7].
Final draws
and match times are available on the College Squash (CSA) website
www.collegesquash.org
. Admission is free for all matches. Spectator attendance for the weekend
is expected to exceed five thousand. The championships are sponsored by
Bear Stearns, Harrow Sports and Dunlop Sport and are administered
by the College Squash Association.
For more information contact: College Squash Association, Ron Beck,
Executive Director 978-266-1300,
csa@squashtalk.com . Draws, scores
throughout the weekend, and directions to the venues will all be published at
www.collegesquash.org
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College
Squash Association
Tel +1-978-266-1300,
ronbeck@squashtalk.com,
P.O. Box 2918, Acton, MA 01720 |