Thank you San Francisco!
Thank you San Francisco!
September 26, 2021
For the first time in Oracle NetSuite Open history, the University of California took on Stanford University in the Big Squash exhibition on the Squash Engine Glass Court. College squash usually features nine players on each team vying for victory. In today’s event, Cal and Stanford each put five players (with Stanford using three from their varsity women’s team and two from their men’s club team) up for a modified format edition of college squash—including a modified scoring format with games to five points but featuring a single point tiebreaker if games were even at two each. Overall score for the teams would be the running total of games won.
With Cal leading 12-8 after four matches, Cal No. 1 player, Erick Chacon, faced Stanford No 1, Elena Wagenmans. In a tightly contested match, Chacon eked it out 3-2 with a raucous crowd supporting him.
Afterwards, Squash Engine’s John Nimick, who is also the College Squash Association Board of Directors Chair, was happy to welcome the Stanford women’s varsity back after having been dropped from varsity status just over a year ago by the university (click here for the story about the issue surrounding Stanford women’s varsity squash). He was also encouraged by the fans who came out to support their schools.
“The College Squash Association, in partnership with US Squash, has a stated goal of ‘40/40 by 2030.’ That is, 40 varsity squash teams, both men and women, by 2030,” said Nimick afterwards. “Cal Berkeley is exactly the sort of program we are targeting. They were the highest ranked men’s club team in the country at the end of the 2019/2020 season, and they are working on raising funds through Friends of Cal Squash to hire coaches and push for varsity status.”
Until the next Big Squash…Go Bears! (yes, this writer is a Cal alum)
