The MA Squash singles leagues finished up in March. Great competition, sportsmanship, and camaraderie were hallmarks of the leagues once again this year. See below for recaps on a few of this year’s leagues. Special thanks to these league chairs for sending in the results!
Women’s 2.5/3.5 (Lisa Putukian): What a season! Three teams were tied for first place going into the last regular game of the 2015 season. In the end, after a total of 412 points in the finals, the Harvard Club prevailed for the season title over Newton Squash & Tennis. Eight teams fielded five players weekly, with 82 women playing overall (75 were eligible to play in the playoffs–talk about spreading the wealth!). Eight players enjoyed undefeated seasons, most notably Mimi Coolidge (11-0) and Helena Carroll (10-0). 24 of the women were playing at the 3.5 level or taking the leap at least once to “play up.” The new ratings have allowed us to play more 3.5 level games when we can ensure parity, but that can also be challenging. We had terrific participation all season long despite several snowed out and rescheduled matches. After rescheduling twice and getting snowed out and stranded twice, the weather still won a few of them. Thanks to one and all for a super season!
50+ (Simon Graham): We had another year of social, balanced play in the 50+ league. This season, we decided that all teams would make the playoffs so that we would all get an extra week or two of play. The handicaps were adjusted before the beginning of the season and again at the mid-point to ensure that all the games were social and that as many as possible went to five games. The second half of the season was dominated by the weather with three consecutive weeks snowed out. In the end, I had to remove one complete week from the schedule just to make it possible to complete the matches. This season, we had two monumental semifinals with the winner and runner-up from last season, Maugus and UBC, playing a repeat of their match. This year, it went 4-0 to Maugus, but this result does not adequately describe the level of play from these two tough teams. Long standing rivals BRC and Concord Acton played the other semifinal at the hot Boston courts. This one came right down to the wire, going to BRC on points (218 to 204). This set up the final between Maugus and BRC, which the Maugus team won 3-1 in great style, making this two years in a row that they are the 50+ league champions!
Open 3.5 (Alex Yanishevsky): The 3.5 league had 13 teams for this year. The league was quite competitive with two thirds of the teams winning at least one third of their matches. Six teams made the playoffs, and the finals featured the two finalists from last year, BRC and Andover. BRC capped off an undefeated year and repeated as champions by beating Andover 3-1. As far as individual players, two players, Amir Durrani and Andrew Blute, were undefeated for the season, each 7-0 while playing in half of their club’s matches. In addition, many players dramatically improved over the course of the season with their ranking moving up .25 or higher relative to the beginning of the season. We look forward to equally competitive and spirited playing next season!
Open 4.0 (Tom Durkin): It was a great season for the 4.0 league. 15 teams competed this year, and it came right down to the wire for the playoffs, with four teams tied for last three playoff spots! Newton missed the playoffs by just a few points, and Concord Acton 2 beat out Concord Acton 1 for the least advantageous home court advantage possible. In the battle of the Boston Sports Clubs, Allston came out on top of over Waltham. In the championship, the venerable unbeaten BSC Allston team faced the Boston Racquet Club in a great battle. The match ended tied on matches and games and had to be decided by points. BSC Allston finished out their unbeaten season to win the 4.0 championship! Thanks to all for a great season! Finally, I wanted to call out the top five biggest movers in ratings for the season: Marc Winkler (Equinox), Alex Kohlberg (UClub), Javed Jahangir (BSC Waltham), Bunny Fox (Maugus), and Amit Gulaya (BSC Waltham).