This past Saturday saw players from throughout the United States descend upon Squash Tigers for our Penultimate Rehearsal Tournament of the 2022/23 season… and it turned out to be one of our very best! With everything from National Champs right through to players who are yet to begin their US Squash Tournament careers, there was something for everyone. In a tribute to the strength of our girls program, four of the five divisions were won by girls, make of that what you will, and the day saw great skill, sportsmanship and friendship up and down the courts. What a celebration of squash it was!!
Premier Division saw Alex win his second Rehearsal Tournament title for the season with a sterling win over James, who was making his debut in the Series. James, despite recovering from a rather nasty cold, acquitted himself well throughout and was a welcome addition to the event! Will, playing in his first few complete matches since a February injury, acquitted himself well and will be better for the outing. He defeated JJ for 3rd place. A quick reminder, JJ received the William T. Ketchum Jr. Most Improved Award for BU15, having moved up 80 ranking places during the last season after winning two JCT’s at U13, so he’s not had a bad few months himself! In a high standard 5-8 Evan, Eric, Arjun and Maryam (fresh from winning the PA Gold GU19 recently) all played hard and benefitted from three tough refereed matches. Good prep for when the pressure comes on in US Squash events in the future.
Lily won D1 in fine style, defeating our GU13 National Champion Isabella (don’t call me Bella) in the final. Edward enjoyed a solid event, his quarter final victory over Moeed in the quarter final was one of the matches of the tournament! Moeed, making his debut finished sixth after defeating Ty and losing out to ever improving Jonathan in the playoffs. Everyone’s favorite player, our 11 y.o. star Eric, and Ty also played a barn burner with Eric making to come out ahead after a loooong day on the courts.
Angela dominated D2 with her very solid driving game, eventually driving Dhruv off court in the final. Leo finished in a well positioned 3rd place, defeating Jonah in qualifying and only losing out to the winner! Angela herself has had a season to be proud of and was the recipient of US Squash’s GU15 Most Improved Award at Silver Nationals, so again, not a bad few months for one of our ST originals. Dhruv also did well, getting over his disappointment in losing to Ty in qualifying to defeat Allen and Andrew on his way to the final. Allen, Mimi (currently nationally ranked 7 in the GU11), Adam and Alice did well in the D2 consol - with no matches being straight forward!
D3 saw Chloe win, rebounding from loss to Alice in the qualifying to defeat the ever improving Sriya. Worth mentioning that Chloe is currently nationally ranked 13 in the GU11 and Alice ranked 14 - so that made it somewhat of an “upset”… sort of. Regardless, Tony made a podium finish, beating out Raymond and remind us that it is still Tony’s world, we’re just living in it. Evan, Ronnie, Dev and Jonah - the four musketeers, or perhaps the four horsemen, depending upon their mood at the time, were a delight in the back draw with Evan finishing 5th.
Siddhi continued on the theme of GIRL POWER, coming away with the D4 trophy! Jesse and Dean rounded out the podium, with Ethan, Ansh, Kaileen and Vincent demonstrating their week upon week improvements. As ACDC said, “it’s a long way to the top if you wanna rock and roll”, and the crew are definitely on the way to the top with their weekly diet of hard work!
Overall a sterling event, with high standards of sportsmanship, skill and fellowship. Our final Rehearsal Event of the 2022/2023 season will be June 3 and you can enter via our dedicated webpage. The event will be a perfect opportunity to get matches, matches and more matches before the rigors of summer tournaments and summer camps. There are no junior US Squash events of note on that particular weekend, so please be aware that we cap our entries at the first 60 players to register, so if you intend to compete, sooner rather than later is the best way to avoid disappointment!
See y’all in June for the biggest and best Rehearsal event of the year before our summer camps begin!
*Addendum thanks to our ST photographer for the event @eddiesteadyphotography on insta!
