Ubina’s Sterling Play Leads Princeton in Key Early Season Win by David Keating
photo Princeton Athletics
November 29, 2016
- The Stanford women’s varsity squash team flew east for matches the
weekend before Thanksgiving looking for another early season upset.
Last year the Cardinal took down then second-ranked powerhouse Trinity
in the Bantam’s season opener match. While the Bantams were short their
full line up, it was still a huge upset and made a huge statement about
the surging Stanford program.
Could it happen again, with Stanford knocking off another elite team?
Stanford fans were hopeful and Princeton fans nervous at the season
opener for both teams.
What no one foresaw was a rare display of squash under exceedingly
difficult circumstances from Princeton’s co-captain Maria Elena Ubina.
The Tigers lost to seventh-ranked Columbia in the first round of the
Ivy scrimmages the previous weekend. After the initial loss, the team
scored unimpressive wins against Dartmouth and Cornell to place 5th.
This subpar performance did not bode well for the season opener.
The Cardinal team lost just one starter to graduation and landed the
top two American recruits in Casey Wong and Chloe Chemtob. The initial
College Squash Association team ranking, done by a poll of coaches,
placed the Tigers at #4 and the Cardinal at #5.
Regular season results go into a recently-adopted computer ranking
algorithm that produces the seeding for the national championship. A
loss for Princeton could have put the team at serious risk of a sixth
seed at nationals, likely dooming a shot at the final.
With so much at stake, the top two Tigers, Olivia Fiechter and Maria
Elena Ubina, entered the lineup. Both were still battling injuries and
neither took the court at the Ivy scrimmages. Could Princeton somehow
produce at least one win at the top? If not, the Tigers would need to
take at least five of the lower seven matches.
In any team win, many players contribute and excel. Princeton Senior
Gabriella Garr showed a steely determination at #5 in a four-game win,
taking two tie-breaker games to seal the fifth match for her team.
Junior Lindsey Scott showed she could be a huge factor in future team
matches this season with an impressive 3-0 win at #4. Isabel
Hirschberg, who played #8 and #9 last season as a freshman, notched a
solid four-game win over second-team All-American and Stanford
co-captain Zandra “CC” Ho at #3. Co-captain Alex Toth lost two of the
first three games but emerged the winner while Kira Keating, also
battling injury, won in three.
Yet there is little doubt that Ubina produced the most impressive
performance of the day. She had limited preseason training due to
injury and early on it showed. She lost the first game 11-3. One fan
observed that she looked like a sniper honing her aim in the first
game. Some shots were too high, and some were too low and many points
lost to errors. At the same time Stanford's talented freshman Chloe
Chemtob showed Stanford landed a gem of a player.
After knocking off the rust in the first game, Ubina battled back to an
11-9 win in game two. After the first game, fans saw the match of the
day and perhaps one of the most thrilling of the season. Princeton head
coach Gail Ramsay called it “an entertaining match of extremely high
quality. It was one of Ubina’s best displays of spectacular shot making
with winning volleys nicks and soft touch drops throughout.”
I saw much of it too. It was stunning to behold. How could she regain
such shot making form so quickly? How did she have the stamina to play
five games against such a strong player?
It’s quite possible that later this year Ubina’s win might mark a
turning point for a Princeton team that has solid potential and a deep
lineup. The team win almost certainly sealed an essential top five
seeding at the national championships in February. The grit
demonstrated Ubina and Fiechter as they played so well under such
difficult circumstances were essential for the win. Their return to the
lineup gave each of their seven teammates, who played two spots down, a
better chance to win. And Ubina’s play was an inspiration for all as
Princeton won 6-3.
Complete Results: Princeton 6, Stanford 3
1 - Casey Wong (S) d. Olivia Fiechter 8, 6, (10), 10 2 - Maria Elena Ubina (P) d. Chloe Chemtob (3), 9, (9), 6, 9 3 - Isabel Hirshberg (P) d. CC Ho (11), 7, 10, 6 4 - Lindsey Scott (P) d. Lucy Rowe 5, 6, 10 5 - Gabriella Garr (P) d. Tara Shannon 10, 10, (9), 6 6 - Alexandra Toth (P) d. Sarah Bell 5, (6), (9), 9, 11 7 - Christie Huchro (S) d. Morgan Steelman 8, (4), 9, (12), 9 8 - Kira Keating (P) d. Anna Marie Manning 5, 11, 5 9 - Bailey Bondy (S) d. Kate Feeley 3, (12), 9, (9), 5
