Queen's women, Western men look to defend OUA Squash Championship titles this weekend

BURLINGTON, Ont. - The Western Mustangs men's squash team is aiming for an unprecedented 33rd consecutive banner when the OUA Squash Championships begin on Friday, Jan. 29 and run until Sunday, Jan. 31 at the White Oaks Resort in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

With a winning streak that began in 1983, Western enters the championship this weekend as the team to beat.  The Mustangs will look to Nick Guest (Mississauga, Ont) and seventh-year veteran Tashlin Reddy (Hamilton, Ont.) to lead a relatively young Mustangs squad that is hoping to capture their 43^rd title in program history. 

Stefan Houbtchev (Tecumseh, Ont.) will be making his OUA championship debut for Western and the former national team member will likely be in the conversation for Rookie of the Year on Sunday.  Houbtechev, who represented Canada at the 2014 Pan American Junior Squash Championships, finished in 4^th place at the 2014 Canadian Junior Squash Championships in the U19 division.

If there is a team that could bring an end to Western's run of dominance it could be the Waterloo Warriors, who finished second to the Mustangs at last year's championship.  Led by defending individual champion and three-time OUA all-star Cameron Seth (Fergus, Ont.), the Warriors would like nothing more than to hoist the Harold Martin Trophy for the first time in program history. 

Seth, who has also competed for Canada at the University Squash Championships in the past, will be joined by 2015 OUA all-star Blake Reinson (Edmonton, AB.) and veterans Hussein Salemwalla (Maple, Ont.), Diego Caballero (Bucamaanga) and Matthew Mackenize (Diego Martin).

The Toronto Varsity Blues hope that their strong regular season showing will translate into another podium finish at the OUA championship.  Toronto went undefeated this year at the the Black Knight Tournament, Jesters Tournament (Montreal), Jesters Crossover and Jesters East Sectional (Kingston).

The Blues, who captured a bronze medal at last year's event, will be led by Jack Turney (Market Harborough, England) and fifth-year captain Riyan Bhatia (Mumbai, India).  Joining the pair will be assistant captain Alexandre Garceau (Surrey, B.C.) and rookie Mihir Badhan (Abbotsford, B.C.), who despite losing to Waterloo's Cameron Seth at the annual Black Knight tournament, has shown promise this season.

Another team to watch on the men's side is the McMaster Marauders. Led by returning four-time OUA all-star Patrick Morkus (Barrie, Ont.) and 2014 OUA Rookie of the Year Mikale Reddy (Ancaster, Ont.), the Maruaders will hope to improve upon their fourth place finish from a year ago.  McMaster finished tied with Toronto with 21 points, however, lost the tiebreaker based on win totals.  Joining Morkus and Reddy this weekend will be 2015 OUA all-star Nick Pavicic (Woodbridge, Ont.), who finished second in the fourth flight last season.

Hossam Elkady and the Guelph Gryphons will head to St. Catharines, Ont. this weekend looking to improve upon their fifth place finish from a year ago.  Andrew Chong, who won bronze in the fourth flight last year, has moved on but Quinton Nurse, Joel Sieder and Chris Muirhead hope to find the podiums on Sunday.  

After missing out on the podium last season, the Queen's Gaels hope that come Sunday they will be back in the hunt for a medal.  The Gaels, who finished tied for third with Waterloo in 2014, will look to Cameron Butler (Toronto, Ont.) and Wesley Cranston (Toronto, Ont.), who won four matches at the Jesters Crossover Squash Tournament, to help get them there.

Despite finishing last at the OUA championship a year ago, the Brock Badgers finished second to the Vasity Blues at the East Sectional Jester's crossover event earlier this season and could be a dark horse to finish atop the podium at home. 

While this will be his first OUA championship with the Badgers, Mohamed Hamour (Niagara Falls, Ont.) is no stranger to the tournament as he was named an OUA all-star and Rookie of the Year in 2013 while playing for the Queen's Gaels.  Haydon Ashkanase (Stratford, Ont.) will be relied on heavily by the Badgers, as will Phillip Calder (St. Catharines, Ont.), who has overcome Cystic Fibrosis and a double lung transplant to compete in OUA squash.

On the women's side, the Queen's Gaels enter the weekend as the defending champions, having captured their 11^th title in program history a year ago.  Reigning player of the year and first-team OUA all-star Heather White (Calgary, AB.) is back for another season and could help the Gaels go back-to-back for the first time since they won six consecutive titles from 1993-1998.  Queen's will also look to Meg Richmond (Toronto, Ont.) to have a strong weekend, as the 2014 OUA all-star will be playing in the fourth flight this weekend.

After winning the OUA championship two years ago, the University of Toronto Varsity Blues missed the top step of the podium by just two points last season.  However, with three OUA all-stars from a year ago back in the fold, the Blues have to be considered a serious contender to Gaels championship aspirations. 

Evelyn Moorhouse (Calgary, AB.) and Natalia Londono (Bogota, Colombia) both finished second in their flights at last year's championship, while Kathryn Milligan (Delta, B.C.) captured gold in the third flight.  Londono and Moorhouse were also named OUA all-stars in 2014.

The Western Mustangs have hoisted the Squash Plaque 14 times in program history and if they want to make it 15, sixth-year veteran Holly Delavigne (Sarnia, Ont.) will need to have a strong tournament playing out of the No. 1 seed.  Delavigne was an OUA all-star in 2013 when the Mustangs last won the championship and has been selected to the team three times in her career.

As a rookie last season, Nicola Crich (London, Ont) won silver in the sixth flight and returns to the OUA championship this weekend hoping to capture gold as the Mustangs' No. 4 seed.  Western will also look to third-year players Michaela Khan (Vancouver, BC) and Maggie Callaghan (Toronto, Ont.) to turn in strong championship performances for the purple and white.

After finishing fourth a year ago, the McMaster Marauders enter the tournament hoping to close the gap and finish on the podium come Sunday afternoon.  The Marauders will look to 2013 all-star Talia MacDougall (Niagara Falls, Ont.) and former OUA rookie of the year Emma Kent (Calgary, AB.) and to have strong tournaments playing out of the third and fourth seeds, respectively.  In just her second season with the Marauders, Sydney Leslie (Oakville, Ont.) will be representing the Marauders in the second flight this weekend.

The host Brock Badgers enter the weekend hoping to improve upon their fifth place finish from a year ago.  Led by a rookies Andrea Chaves (St. Catharines, Ont.) and Sarah Hopton (Mississauga, Ont.), the host Badgers would like nothing more than to pull off a couple upsets this weekend.  Allison Sparham (Sarnia, Ont.) and Stephanie Korda (St. Catharines, Ont.) will provide veteran leadership for Brock.

Rounding out the field on the women's side, the rebuilding Waterloo Warriors would like nothing more than to move up a couple positions in the final standings come Sunday afternoon.  The Warriors are led by Marissa Seth (Fergus, Ont.), who is the latest member of a Seth family squash dynasty at the University of Waterloo that includes her sisters Micaala and Natasha, as well as her brother Cameron.

New for 2016, the OUA Squash championship will be an open championship with men's and women's team champions.  Each matchup will be comprised of six matches with the team who wins the most number of matches being declared the winner. Each match will be best of five games with the first player to 11 points winning the game (win by 2 points with rally scoring).  The championship format will be a full-round robin tournament with the gold, silver and bronze medals being awards to top three teams, respectively, following the completion of the round robin.

Tournament play begins Friday at 2:00pm and finishes Sunday. OUA all-stars and major award winners will be announced at the conclusion of the tournament.

A full schedule is available here.