Quibell Takes Constable
Jan 28, 2004 By Rob Dinerman © 2004 SquashTalk all rights reserved

Defeats Helel Twice In Five Days         [also: photogallery]

Quibell stops Reddy in the Semi Finals. Photo © 2004 Debra Tessier

Still capitalizing on the momentum and confidence boost of her exciting
four-game victory over the same vaunted opponent just four days earlier in the
deciding match of Yale's 5-4 win in the dual meet with Trinity, Eli sophomore
and No. 1 player Michelle Quibell defeated defending champion and two-time
Intercollegiate Individuals Amina Helal by a score of 5-9 9-7 9-1 9-5 Sunday
afternoon in the final round of the Betty Constable Invitational at Jadwin
Gymnasium in Princeton, named in honor of Princeton's legendary Hall of Fame former coach and organized and admirably run by current coach Gail Ramsay. A
semi-final victim in both the Constable and Individuals of Helal's march to those
two titles, Quibell throughout her pair of upset wins last week demonstrated a
degree of aggressiveness, versatility and control that belied the difficulties
she had experienced as a freshman last winter and spring.

She is volleying much more now and looking to attack the front-court, and her array of shots has expanded noticeably. If Helal appeared visibly tight at Yale last Wednesday while confronting a much-improved opponent in front of an aroused and hostile crowd with the team outcome on the line due to Yale's sweep of the Nos. 7-9 positions and win by Catherine MacLeod over Trinity's Vaidehi Reddy at No. 3, the absence of most of those elements in their rematch was not enough for her to right her temporarily listing ship in time to re-assert the dominance she has enjoyed in recent years over the women's intercollegiate circuit.

And there won't be a respite anytime soon for the suddenly beleaguered Helal, who this coming Saturday in the Harvard-Trinity dual meet must face Crimson star and fellow senior Louisa Hall, who has been playing the best squash of her career, including playing a major role in the first-ever team gold medal won by the U. S. at the quadrennial Pan American Games in Santo Domingo and then defeating her gold-medal teammate Meredeth Quick in the final of the Harvard Club of New York Invitational earlier this month.

Tournament originator Betty Contable congratulates the finalists. Photo © 2004 Debra Tessier

A certain element of complacency had inevitably and insidiously seeped into the Trinity program during the intervening nearly three years of being undefeated, and in New Haven last week the consequences of this slippage had come hurtling down upon the over-confident Bantams, who it should be remembered had whitewashed Yale 9-0 in last year's Howe Cup final, even though that tournament was also held (as will be the case with this year's Howe Cup as well) on Yale's turf.

TRINITY'S RENEWED FOCUS
Coach Bartlett believes that the unexpected loss to Yale will give her now properly chastened troops the "kick" they needed and force them to focus on the important final six weeks of the season, beginning with the Harvard match this weekend, with a level of urgency and attention that has been lacking to this point. A similar momentarily painful but ultimately valuable experience befell the Trinity men, who lost badly to Princeton early last season in the USSRA Five-Man Team final but rebounded with decisive wins over the Tigers in the matches that determined both the regular-season and Potter Trophy championships.

TRINITY MAN STILL SAILING
Paul Assaiante's contingent subdued the Yale men 6-3, surmounting sub-par performances by Michael Ferreira (who lost badly at No. 1 to Julian Illingworth, whom he had routed in an Individuals quarter-final last March) and Nadeem
Osman at No. 6, who tinned heavily in a four-game loss to Nick Chirls. The
outcome was never in real doubt (Trinity led 4-0 after the "evens" segment was
over, and shortly thereafter Trinity co-captain Pat Malloy made it official with
his win over Avner Geva, usually in the top-five of Yale's line-up who was
making a rare appearance at No. 7), but it was still the first time in several
years that the Trinity men had yielded as many as three matches in a dual meet.
This weekend's clash with the powerful Harvard men would have represented a
possible 100th consecutive team win for the five-time defending Potter Trophy
holders had the original schedule held, but two matches were snowed out earlier
this winter, so the winning streak of the Trinity men instead currently
stands at 97.

CONSTABLE WRAPUP
In the Constable semis, which became a Yale-Trinity crossover, Quibell
defeated Trinity No. 3 10-8 in the fourth while Helal was eliminating Quibell's
teammate MacLeod in three games. Hall, Lindsey Wilkins and the rest of the
Harvard squad were all absent due to the tournament falling right in the midst of
exams in Cambridge. In spite of these absences, there were more than 75
overall entrants competing in the four flights comprising the Constable
Invitational and Princeton Championships (also consisting of draws in the 3.5, 4.5
and 5.5 flights), and the matches this past weekend should serve as an important springboard to the remainder of the 2003-2004 intercollegiate season.

Results of all flights, more photos

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