The largest Intercollegiate Doubles Championships–featuring sixty-three teams from twenty-four colleges and universities–was held alongside the National Collegiate Individuals for the first time, March 4-6, at the Arlen Specter US Squash Center in Philadelphia.
The field of three divisions–women’s, men’s and mixed–produced two first-time champions in Brown University and the University of Virginia, and Yale’s first men’s title since 2005.
View all results on the Intercollegiate Doubles tournament Page.
Two seeds Sydney Maxwell & Olivia Walsh earned Virginia’s first doubles national title in program history in the women’s division. Maxwell & Walsh advanced to the final without dropping a game where they met Brown’s four seeds Rachel Mashek & Danielle Benstock. Maxwell & Walsh clinched the title 15-12, 14-15, 15-11, 15-10 in fifty-eight minutes.
While falling short in the women’s final, Mashek enjoyed title success in the nineteen-team Mixed division with partner Blake Roshkoff. Roshkoff & Mashek, the two seeds, set up an all-Brown final against surprise finalists Isabella Kearns & Grant Sterman. Roshkoff & Mashek earned Brown’s first doubles national title in any division 11-15, 15-7, 15-8, 15-12 in fifty-eight minutes.
Yale’s Maxwell Orr & Nadav Raziel proved to be the only top seed to fulfill their seeding in the thirty-one team men’s division. Orr & Raziel endured a five-game semifinal against teammates Merritt Wurts & Taylor Clayton to meet Penn’s two seeds James Flynn & Yash Bhargava in the final. Orr & Raziel would go on to lift Yale’s first Butcher-Ball Cup since Julian Illingworth & Trevor Rees, 15-12, 15-10, 7-15, 15-8 in sixty-four minutes.
“It was so exciting to see the enthusiasm and record numbers at the at the Intercollegiate Doubles,” said Preston Quick, US Squash Victor Elmaleh Director of Doubles and tournament director. “For many of these players, this was the first time that they played competitive doubles, and many of the teams now have their own doubles courts to practice at their schools to prepare for this national championship. We hope competing in this event encourages the players to return next year and continue to enjoy this life sport after they graduate.”
While doubles is not a standard part of dual match play in college squash, an intercollegiate doubles tournament has been held annually since the late 1980s. A doubles tournament was held sporadically in the 1940s and 1950s, but after the 1956 tournament, there was no formal intercollegiate doubles competition for over thirty years. In 1988, William Tredwell “Treddy” Ketcham helped bring back the doubles tournament. A former player at Yale who served as the USSRA president from 1965 to 1967, Ketcham was a major proponent of the doubles game. He was also an accomplished player; between 1965 and 1974, he won the USSRA senior (age 50+) doubles title seven times, playing with four different partners. The intercollegiate doubles tournament was renamed in his honor in 1998.
