Yale’s Tomlinson Denies Title Repeat

It is the second consecutive year that a freshman has become the Collegiate Squash Association (CSA) women’s individual champion. Last year, Harvard’s Laura Gemmell started her collegiate career with a perfect season, going 16-0 in the regular season and winning the 2010 Individual championship title.

This year, after a second undefeated regular season, it appeared that Gemmell would once again walk away with the national title and Ramsay Cup.

But the sophomore was unable to repeat last year’s performance, losing, 3-0, to Yale freshman Millie Tomlinson.

“It was definitely sad to see one of our own not winning this year,” sophomore Sarah Mumanachit said. “But it’s exciting to see new players coming into the college squash circuit each year and really bringing the level up and setting the bar even higher.”

“I think the pressure is lower as a freshmen, when you first come into college squash, so the expectations are lower as well,” captain Alisha Mashruwala added.

Tomlinson—who played No. 2 in Yale’s lineup this past season—entered the weekend’s tournament with a 15-1 regular-season record and advanced to the finals with a series of 3-0 wins. Gemmell advanced past her first round with a 3-0 win against Princeton’s Alexis Saunders. Cornell’s Jaime Laird proved to be a tougher opponent, but Gemmell ultimately won, 3-1, and came back with two more 3-0 wins in the quarter and semifinals.

In yesterday’s first game of the finals, Tomlinson took a quick 4-1 lead, but Gemmell fought back to tie things up at 10 points each. Tomlinson outlasted the sophomore, 12-10.

In the second set, Tomlinson again took an early lead that she never lost, winning, 11-3.

The third game was as close as the first, with Gemmell at one point tying the score, 9-9. Tomlinson was able to hold on and won, 11-9.

It was nearly an all-Crimson final as Harvard junior Nirasha Guruge was pitted against Tomlinson in the semifinal match. But the Yale player defeated Guruge, 3-0, winning the sets, 12-10, 11-6, and 11-4.

“Nirasha played probably the best squash I’ve ever seen her play before,” Mashruwala said. “She went in there, she was in it to win, and she blew everyone’s mind with the squash that she played. I’m very, very proud of her.”

Guruge made it to the semifinal round for the first time in her three years on the team by beating Yale’s No. 1 player, Logan Greer, 3-2.

“Nirasha’s a great player,” Mumanachit said. “She’s had some tough matches this season, but I really think that she proved her potential this tournament and I hope that she’s happy with her results. She had a great win against one of the Yale girls in the quarters. She was down two games and came back and fought hard to win the match in five against [Greer].”

“I just went into the match thinking if I win, I win, if I lose, I lose, because that’s what my coach always tells me,” Guruge said.

Gemmell and Guruge were not the only players representing Harvard in this past weekend’s CSA championship. The team sent seven of its top players to the national tournament, including sophomore Natasha Kingshott and junior Cece Cortes who faced off against one another in the Ramsay Division consolation finals.

“It was definitely tough, but we both played a hard fought match,” Cortes said. “We were really glad that we could represent Harvard in a final match.”

Cortes defeated Kingshott in three games, 11-6, 11-7, and 11-8

This was not Kingshott’s first match against a fellow Crimson player that weekend. She also played teammate and senior June Tiong, beating her, 3-1, while on the path to consolation finals.

“It’s very exciting to see teammates playing in the finals of anything,” Mashruwala said. “It makes you feel proud because your teammates have gotten so far and worked hard all season. I think it was a very good match and I think both [Cortes and Kingshott] played extremely well today.”

Though Harvard dominated Yale last year, with the women’s team defeating the Bulldogs to win the Ivy League championship and both the men’s and women’s individual champions donning crimson uniforms, it seems now as though the tables have turned.

Not only is the new individual champion, Tomlinson, a member of the Yale team, but the Bulldog’s also earned the men’s and women’s Ivy League Championship titles earlier this year.

“[Yale] had a lot of strong players, clearly, as one of their players won individuals this year,” Mumanachit said. “But [Harvard] played really well and gave it their all and really showed the other schools that we’re tough out there.”

This tournament marked the last matches for Mashruwala and Tiong.

“My team has been unbelievable,” Mashruwala said. “They’ve been like my best friends here and leaving is just going to be very hard for me, but I’m very excited, and we had four really, really good seasons.”