Article and Photos by Jay D. Prince/Squashmagazine.com
Trivia Time: What do Annie Ballaine, Olivia Blatchford, Bailey Bondy, Julie Cerullo, Kathryn Corelli, Hallie Dewey, Caroline Feeley, Rachel Leizman, Haley Mendez, Emily Park, Elizabeth Schetman, Dylan Murray, Alexander Ma and Price Soukup have in common? The easy answer is that they’ve all played in the U.S. Junior Closed/Gold Championships at one time or another. But that’s too easy.
The unofficial end to the US junior tournament calendar is full of trivia possibilities, as is just about any sport. Head-to-head results are fun to peruse; winning streaks typically pique our interest; and numbers of titles won is always an eye opener.
This year’s U.S. Junior Closed was no different, though the burning question might have been whether or not anyone would bet against Amanda Sobhy continuing her unbeaten string in junior events to 15 months. The last time she lost in a junior tournament in the United States was December, 2009, when Olivia Blatchford recovered from a two-games-to-one deficit in the U.S. Junior Open U19 final to win in a dramatic five games.
Of course, Sobhy and Blatchford have been so busy playing in WISPA events, neither has played many junior matches since that day in Hartford (CT). In their three encounters since, Sobhy has won all three— twice in the Junior Closed U19 finals (including this year, 3-0) and once in the Junior Open championship last December.
The Girls’ U19 featured the added buzz of the upcoming World Junior Team and Individual Championships this summer. Not only will Sobhy be defending her individual title, but the team figures to be seeded high with Blatchford playing No. 2 and a solid group vying for the remaining spots on the team (you can find the final results from the team playoff on Page 8 of this issue). And…the event has been moved from Egypt to Boston (MA) at Harvard, July 20-30, giving the American team the added benefit of playing at home.
Dylan Murray burst onto the scene as a precocious nine-year-old when he reached the quarterfinals of the U13 in the Junior Closed. He may have been short in stature, forever having to push his glasses back onto his face every time he hit the ball, but Murray turned heads with his mature understanding of the game and efficient strokes. By the time he was done with the U13, he had not only won a title in 2006, but he had also been runner-up in the British Juniors as the No. 2 seed in 2008—and he was proclaimed as the World’s top-ranked player in the Boys’ U13.
Since then, Murray has not only grown to nearly six feet, but his game continues to feature the atypical touch and shot variety of a junior player. He won the Junior Closed U15 in 2008 (at 12 years old), was runner-up in the U17 the following year, and again a runner-up in 2010 in the U19. But this year, he ran away with the U19 title, including a convincing final over Edward Columbia—and Murray has three more years of eligibility remaining in the juniors (one more tidbit on Murray, since 2007: he has faced Columbia five times and dropped just a single game).
For those familiar with junior squash, it’s common to hear people talking about their “up” year and their “down” year. By “up,” the reference is to a player’s last year in an age group; “down” would be their first year (unless, of course, one is playing a division before completing their eligibility in a younger one). For Katie Tutrone, her “up” years have been just that. She closed out her eligibility in the U13 (2007), U15 (2009) and U17 (this year) by winning U.S. Closed titles in each of those years. Her U17 title run this year was capped by a 3-0 win over Bailey Bondy in the final. The only blip Tutrone felt was in the semifinals when Georgia Blatchford won the second game of their semifinal, 12-10.
The Boys’ U17 stood out from the other nine divisions this year for the simple fact that it was the only draw in which the No. 1 seed failed to reach the final. Nor did the No. 2 seed. Instead, Michael East, a 3/4 seed took advantage of a stellar performance to win his first national championship. From 2006-2009, East had reached the semifinals every year, only to finish fourth in the U13 (2006 and 2007), third in the U15 (2008) and fourth in the U15 (2009). This time he ran the table without dropping a game, and finished off his title run with a straight-games win over August Frank in the U17 final.
And his sister, Caroline East, added her second U.S. Closed title to her trophy case. In 2009, Caroline stopped Reeham Sedky in the U13 final, and she repeated the feat by overcoming Sedky in the U15 final this year in four games.
Except for the Girls’ U13, every other division featured a first-time champion. Helen Teegan, who is also a national-caliber swimmer, won the U13 over Casey Wong who she also beat in 2009 for the U11 championship. But for Elle Ruggiero (U11), Mason Ripka (U15), Harrison Gill (U13) and Ian Blatchford (U11), taking home winner’s hardware from this year’s Junior Closed gave them a taste of victory. For Ruggiero and Ripka, winning this year was extra sweet because each had been runners-up in the recent past (Ruggiero in 2010 and Ripka twice in the U13, 2008 and 2009).
By the end of the weekend, 314 players had played nearly 600 matches on Yale’s 15 courts. For some, the journey through junior squash is over while, for most, the time has come for a welcome break and an eye toward next year. But for the top girls, training continues with an eye toward breaking new ground for American squash. While Egypt will be favored to win another World Junior title, the road to a three-peat will go through the U.S.—both figuratively and literally. In 2009, the American team pushed Egypt to the brink in their semifinal and nearly knocked off India in the 3/4 playoff before settling for fourth place. And given the strength of play exhibited in the younger divisions at this year’s U.S. Junior Closed, the American girls teams of the future look to be in good hands.
For those of you who haven’t yet come up with the answer to our opening trivia question: those are the only 14 players to have beaten Amanda Sobhy in a U.S. Squash junior event since 2005 (when Sobhy was just 10 years old). And of the 14, three have beaten her twice (Alexander Ma in Boys’ U19 events in 2008 and 2009; Ballaine and Mendez, each in 2006), and only one has managed more than two wins over the reigning World Junior Champion (Blatchford).
