CSA Women's Team Nationals Preview by David Keating February 21, 2019
- The 2019 CSA Women’s Team National Championships start today in
Connecticut and Harvard is once again a heavy favorite to win the Howe
Cup.
The Crimson won all 10 of their matches this season, all by perfect 9-0
scores. Only Princeton and Trinity, the #2 and #3 seeds, gave Harvard a
serious challenge and still lost every match. Not only did every
Harvard player win each of her matches this season, they only dropped
14 games on the way to winning 270.
In the Howe Cup, my computer model says each Harvard player is favored
to win every game. Only the final presents any real challenge to a
fifth straight national title, and the team is still a heavy favorite,
likely to win by at least a 7-2 margin there.
But there will be plenty of excitement in the top divisions. Friday’s
match to watch is # 4 Stanford and #5 Yale. Stanford beat Yale 7-2 last
month in a rare home match. But five of the seven Cardinal wins were in
five games. My computer model says that was no fluke. In today’s match,
seven of the matches are close to coin flips and all nine ladder spots
are very winnable for either team.
Of the other bottom three seeds, only Penn has a good chance of taking taking fifth.
The team to watch in the Kurtz Cup, the second grouping of eight, is
Cornell, the third seed. Cornell gained a January recruit from Malaysia
in Sivasangari Subramaniam. She has already beaten two 2018
All-Americans in her first seven matches. Her only loss was to Penn’s
Reeham Sedky, the reigning collegiate individual champion, and in that
match she pushed Sedky to 13-11 in the last game. She made the top 32
at the Tournament of Champions last month, won the 2018 British Junior
Open, and sports a #45 PSA ranking.
With Subramaniam at the top of the ladder, Cornell gains substantial
strength at every other spot. Despite their #3 seeding, they have a
strong chance to win the division.
