National Champ

Who were those people beyond the front wall of the big glass squash court at Grand Central Station yesterday? 

Commuters, TigerBlog would guess. Your average person strolling through the massive train station had to be a bit shocked to see the structure in the first place, let alone what was happening there.

The occasion was the CSA individual national championship final matches, where on the women's side it was Princeton sophomore Zeina Zein against Stanford freshman Riya Navani. Just as she had in each of her first four matches in this tournament, Zein won in three games, winning the title by scores of 16-14, 11-4, 11-8.

All of this was accomplished with squash fans in the temporary bleachers and, presumably, confused on-lookers beyond the front of the court. At least that's how it looked on the videostream.

How did it look? Super cool — and that was before the Princeton woman won it all. 

Zein became the sixth Princeton woman to win the national title and first since Julia Beaver did so in 1999, 2000 and 2001. Here is the complete list: Julia Beaver (1999, 2000, 2001), Katherine Johnson (1997), Demer Holleran (1986, 1987, 1989), Nancy Gengler (1976) and Wendy Zaharko (1972, 1974, 1975).

Zaharko, by the way, never lost a collegiate match. She didn't compete in the college championships as a sophomore in 1973 because it conflicted with the U.S. national championships. 

As for the match yesterday, Zein fell behind 10-6 in the first game and was on the verge of dropping her first game of the tournament before she rallied. In all, she'd fight off five total game balls, while Navani held off three against her as well. 

Once she had that game in hand, she did was she has been doing — steamrolling her way to a win. 

The second game saw her lose only four points. In the five matches, she played 15 total games, and she lost four or fewer points in nine of those 15 games. The 14 points she lost in Game 1 yesterday were more than she lost in two of her first four matches total. 

That's steamrolling.

Zein trailed 5-3 and 6-4 in the third game before turning it around with four straight points to take control. She threw her arms skyward after winning match ball. 

The formal name of the women's championship main draw is the Ramsay Cup, named for Princeton head coach Gail Ramsay. As TigerBlog listened to the broadcast, he heard that Ramsay is the longest tenured currently active head women's squash coach. 

That means she's been coaching Princeton for more than 30 years. TB knows this exactly, since he and Ramsay (and Gary Walters, for that matter) all started officially working at Princeton on the same day. 

Ramsay and one time was TB's next-door neighbor, and a great next-door neighbor at that. She is, in addition to being one of the all-time greatest women's squash coaches, a gourmet cook, something TB got to experience first hand. Plus, she never minded if TB borrowed her grill when she wasn't home (or did TB never mention that to her?).

If you don't know her, she is unflappable, friendly and very loyal. She also has a really good sense of humor, the dry kind, same as TB. She is one of the truly great people who ever has worked in Jadwin, and her years alongside the great (and so tragically late) Bob Callahan in the building were so special. 

Her list of accomplishments in the sport also includes being a four-time individual champ herself while at Penn State. Now she can add another individual champ to her resume.

Only a sophomore, Zein can certainly challenge Zaharko, Holleran and Beaver to win three titles (she can also conceivably join the last two as goalies on the lacrosse team, if she's so inclined, or the first and third as a doctor). Whether or not she does so (the three titles, not the lacrosse goalie part or the doctor part), having even one national title on your record is pretty special. 

It means that she's done something really historic.

In her case, she also did it in a place that is really historic. 

Congrats to Zeina Zein on her Ramsay Cup championship. And to the trophy's namesake and the Princeton head coach. 

It was a huge day for Princeton squash.