Courtesy: Beverly SchaeferPrinceton sent its top two players to the CSA national individual semifinals, but both were ousted by talented freshmen Saturday evening. Men's No. 1 Todd Harrity, the reigning national champion, and women's No. 1 Julie Cerullo both fell one match short of reaching Sunday's national final.
Cerullo made a return trip to the CSA semifinals with a win over Harvard's Cecelia Cortes. She won her second straight 3-0 match with an 11-4, 11-7, 11-3 over the older sister of Princeton teammate Casey Cortes. That sent her into a semifinal with Harvard's Amanda Sobhy, the first U.S. player to ever win the Junior World Championship and the No. 1 player in the U.S.
Sobhy, who knocked out Eyre 11-1, 11-4, 11-3 in the quarterfinal, defeated Cerullo by the same 3-0 margin to advance to the finals, where she will play second-seeded Millie Tomlinson of Yale, the reigning national champion.
Princeton is still alive in the Holleran Cup (the 'B' draw), as freshman Alex Lunt won a pair of 3-0 matches to advance to Sunday's semifinal round. After defeating Samantha Matos of Bates College, she topped Elena Laird of Middlebury 11-9, 11-7, 11-6 to stay alive into the final day.
She will open play Sunday at 9 against Shihui Mao, and the winner will play either Robyn Hodgson of Trinity or Issey-Norman Ross of Yale.
On the men's side, Princeton opened the day with three quarterfinalists. Harrity knocked teammate Kelly Shannon 11-7, 11-1, 11-9 to reach the national semifinal, while freshman Samuel Kang, who had an amazing run on Friday, fell 12-10, 11-7, 11-5 to top-seeded Vikram Malhotra of Trinity.
Harrity earned a rematch against Columbia freshman Ramit Tendon, who defeated Harrity 3-0 in the regular season finale. With his deceptive style of play, Tendon controlled play for an 11-7, 11-5, 11-6 victory. Tendon will now face top-seeded Ali Farag of Harvard, who went undefeated this season and is a former Junior British Open winner.
