NEW YORK, N.Y. – Six members of the Virginia squash teams, three men and three women, competed over the weekend in the CSA Individual Championships from Friday through Sunday (Jan. 23-25).
Freshman Juan Irisarri, sophomore Juan Jose Torres Lara and senior JP Tew represented the men while freshman Charlotte Pastel, senior Lina Tammam and sophomore Maria Min represented the women.
The tournament was composed of two main draws; the Pool Trophy, comprised of 64 men, and the Ramsay Cup, comprised of 64 women. Players who lost in the rounds of 64 and 32 fell into consolation brackets.
For the men, Irisarri and Torres Lara were awarded R64 byes due to seeding. Tew won his R64 matchup 3-0 over Cornell's Edward Thng, thus all three advanced to the round of 32. In the round of 32, Irisarri beat Columbia's former Cavalier Arhan Chandra 3-0, Torres Lara topped Trinity's Huzaifa Ibrahaim 3-0 and Tew battled to a 3-2 victory over Princeton's Avi Agarwal. All three then fell in the round of 16, Irisarri 3-2, Torres Lara 3-0 and Tew 3-1.
As for the women, Pastel also received a R64 bye. Tammam and Min both won their R64 matchups, Tammam 3-0 and Min 3-1. Pastel was the only female Cavalier to survive the round of 32, as she downed Cornell's Vicky Lai 3-0 to advance to the round of 16, where she fell in four to Princeton's Alexandra Jaffe to end her run in the tournament. Because Tammam and Min were defeated in the round of 32, both were seeded into Consolation Pool D and began play in the quarterfinals of that draw. Min fell 3-0 to Princeton's Emma Trauber, but Tammam defeated Harvard's Ona Blasco 3-0 to play on. Tammam won her semifinals matchup by default, thus advancing her into the pool's final. She battled, but ultimately fell 3-2 to Trauber, the same opponent that eliminated Min.