October saw Fall settling in to NJ in earnest, but the cooler temperatures didn’t make the squash less el fuego! This past Saturday saw Rehearsal Tournament #2 go off with a BANG! Many thanks to Coach Claire for her masterful draws and timings, which ensured we had the matches we needed, when we needed them. An equally large congratulations to all the players who competed their hearts out with skill and sportsmanship, across the three divisions.
Our Premier Division saw Coach Jamie emerge dominant in the elite eight player field, defeating Arjun, JJ and Alex on the way to the title! It will be a race to see who can take a game off the #1 as the season goes on… Although Jamie graced the courts with his usual panache, the match of the tournament belonged to Alex and Parth who played a five game battle in the semi-finals for the ages! Although it’s not a dedicated stream of court BLUE, you can catch much of the action from their match via our YOUTUBE channel and the link will open around the first game action. Lily, Claire, Eric and Arjun were our qualifiers for the top division and a four match day was their reward. Well done all - a great day of matchplay and exactly what Rehearsal Tournaments are all about!
Edward came into Division 1 as the top seed and defeated first time Rehearsal Tournament competitor Jonathan to take the D1 trophy for the second time! The odds of backing up were somewhat rough, with the ever improving crew including Tyler and Adam, so the big guy deserves all credit for getting the job done yet again. That, in addition to seemingly growing an inch a month, I’m sure a Premier Division spot will happen before the end of the season.
Division 2 was also dominated by a Chen brother, again, with Evan also backing up his win in Rehearsal Event 1 and emerging the Big Dog! D2 frequently gives us the epics that we so desire and this was no different. Tony, Jay, Neil, Ronnie and all the kids are getting exponentially better every week and are destined to make their mark in US Squash events in due course! Watch out World!
In addition to our Rehearsal Event, a shout out to the big crew who contested the catchily titled Florham Park Fall Junior Silver Tournament in Northern NJ. Anika did well to finish 3rd in the GU13, Chloe and Sriya overcame some adversity to finish out strongly, as did Yidrew and Leo in the BU13. The BU17 crew played long tough matches and reminded us of the jungle that is that age group! Back to work and bigger things ahead to everyone!
Next weekend we have the Philly JCT, conducted at UPenn and Drexel. Good luck to our dozen competitors across the age groups, we’ll have coaches at courtside and after the monumental results in the first JCT in Boston, we can’t wait to see what transpires.
Our next Rehearsal Event will be contested, as always, the first Saturday of next month, this time falling on November 5 and you can enter via our dedicated webpage. Many questions remain to be answered. Who will be the first to take a game off Jamie? With brothers Edward and Evan winning D1 and D2 AGAIN, can they three-peat??? And finally, can our U11 crew look even more polished and further impress Coach Colin? All of this and more will be answered next month, don’t miss out - entries HERE!
