OUA Squash Championship continues today at Northfield in Waterloo

BURLINGTON, Ont. - The Western Mustangs men's squash team is aiming for an unprecedented 34th consecutive banner when the OUA Squash Championships begin on Friday, Feb. 3 at the Northfield Racquet and Fitness Club in Waterloo, Ont.

Western enters play as the team to beat, with a championship winning streak that dates back to 1983.  At last year's event, the Mustangs only dropped seven matches all tournament en route to capturing the Harold Martin Trophy once again.

In search of their 44^th title in program history, Western will look to a pair of rookies, Matthew Henderson (Victoria, B.C.) and David Mill (Windsor, Ont.), to lead the charge as the Mustangs stampede into Waterloo on Friday.

Prior to arriving at Western, Henderson defeated James Oakley (NZL) 3-1 to win the Boys Under 19 division at the Canadian Junior Open back in December 2015.  Mill is quite familiar with the Northfield Racquet and Fitness Club as in late September he competed in the BDO Northfield Cup.

The University of Toronto Varsity Blues would like nothing more than to upset the rival Mustangs and bring the hardware home for the first time since they won three straight OUA championships from 1980-1983.

At the OUA Jesters East Sectionals earlier this year, Toronto opened the tournament with three straight wins over Concordia, Brock and Montreal before falling 5-2 to the hosts from McGill.  The Blues bounced back against Queen's, narrowly defeating the Gaels 4-3.

Toronto followed up that solid performance with an equally strong showing at the Jesters Crossover where they went 4-1 with their only loss coming at the hands of the McMaster Marauders.    

Following the graduation of former OUA all-star Jack Turney and captain Riyan Bhatia, it will be a relatively young Varsity Blues squad heading to Waterloo this weekend, led by fourth-year veterans Yusuf Shalaby (Mississauga, Ont.) and Alexandre Garceau (Surrey, B.C.).

Once again this year, the host Waterloo Warriors hope a Seth can lead them to their first OUA championship in program history.  However, this time around, it will be first-year phenom Ravi Seth (Fergus, Ont.) looking to pick up right where his older brother and three-time OUA MVP, Cameron Seth, left off. 

Ravi becomes the fifth member of the Seth family to wear black and gold, joining his aforementioned brother Cameron and sister's Marisa, Natasha and Micaala who between the four of them have seven OUA titles.  

Last summer, R. Seth won the World Junior Men's team trials to capture a spot on Team Canada at the World Junior Championships in Poland.  The unseeded Ravi earned a thrilling come from behind victory to down the top seed in five sets.

Coming off a fourth place finish at last year's OUA championship Patrick Morkus (Barrie, Ont.) and the McMaster Marauders have their eyes on a podium finish this time around.

Playing out of the No. 1 spot at the 2016 championship, Morkus, a five-time OUA all-star and 2010-11 OUA Rookie of the Year, went 3-3 on the weekend, including a big win over the Mustangs top player Nick Guest.  Morkus, who is a studying Chemical Engineering at McMaster, is one of the most experienced players in the circuit as he's currently competing in his seventh season of OUA squash. 

The Marauders will also need a strong weekend from Mikale Reddy (Ancaster, Ont.) and 2015 OUA all-star Nick Pavicic (Woodbridge, Ont.) in their pursuit of a place on the podium come Sunday.

The Queen's Gaels will make the trip to Waterloo on Friday looking infuse a little tricolour into "The Tri-City."  For the Gaels, it begins with 2015-16 OUA Rookie of the Year Cameron Butler (Toronto) but it definitely doesn't end there.

There is hope in the Gaels camp that a strong showing in the Jesters East Sectional earlier this year will translate into a top-five finish this weekend.  One bright spot for Queen's continues to be the play of sophomore standout Spencer Lee (Ancaster, Ont.) who won three matches at the East Sectional and appears ready for a big weekend.

The Brock Badgers and Guelph Gryphons round out the field on the men's side and are hoping to improve upon their fifth and seventh place finishes, respectively, from a season ago.

On the women's side, the two-time defending OUA champions from Queen's enter the weekend as a favourite as they hope to hoist the banner for the 13^th time in program history.

Ali Richmond (Toronto) returns for the Gaels and if the 2016-17 OUA championship goes anything like last year's edition, it could be a long weekend for her opponents.  Richmond went a perfect 5-0 last year and only lost one game over the course of the tournament, on her way to being named an OUA all-star.

Captains Marcia Filgiano (Montreal, Que.) and Alysha Anzik (St. Catharines, Ont.) will also play a big role this weekend for Queen's and if their performance at the annual Varsity Crossover Tournament is any indication, the Gaels could be poised for another place atop the podium.  Entering a pair of teams in the event, the Gaels swept the top two spots on the podium.

At the OUA Jesters East Sectionals, the Gaels dominated the field once again, finishing the tournament with a 21-0 record in matches, sweeping McGill, U of T and Brock in the process.

The University of Toronto Varsity Blues enter the OUA championship this weekend looking to capture their 10^th banner in program history.  But to do so, they'll have to find a way to knock off the rival Gaels. 

At the OUA Jester's East Sectional and Jesters OUA Sectional, the Varsity Blues went 5-2 with their only losses coming at the hands of the Gaels.

The Blues will look to 2016 OUA MVP Evelyn Moorhouse (Calgary, Alta.) to continue her strong play as the fourth-year geology major didn't drop a single set in all three of Toronto's wins at the aforementioned Jesters OUA Sectional.  Last year at the OUA championship, the Calgary, Alta. native went 5-1 playing out of the No. 1 seed, with her only loss coming against Queen's.

Coming off a third place finish at the OUA championship a season ago, the Western Mustangs will be looking for their first title since winning three straight banners from 2010-13.

Following the graduation of 2016 OUA all-star and six-year veteran Holly Delavigne, the Mustangs Michaela Khan (Vancouver, B.C) will lead the team this time around.  Now in her fourth year with the team, Khan went 3-2 last year playing out of the second spot for the Mustangs.

After back-to-back fourth place finishes at the OUA championship, the McMaster Marauders hope to find themselves in a podium position when the dust finally settles on Sunday afternoon.  To do so, they'll likely need to find a way to solve the aforementioned Mustangs, a team that handed them a 5-2 loss back on Jan. 14.

Playing out of the fourth spot last year, Talia Macdougall (Niagara Falls, Ont.) went 3-2 for the Marauders, the most wins by any McMaster women's participant in the tournament.  Emilie Corcoran (Ajax, Ont.) and Kathleen Johnson (Hamilton, Ont.) will also bring a strong veteran presence to the team.  

Also competing this weekend on the women's side is the Brock Badgers and host Waterloo Warriors.  Brock finished fifth last year just ahead of Waterloo.

With a pro-Warriors home crowd awaiting them at the Northfield Racquet and Fitness Club, Charlotte Copas (Toronto) and Marisa Seth (Fergus, Ont.) would surly like nothing more than to lead Waterloo to a podium finish on their home court in front of friends and family.

The OUA Squash Championship is 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 is 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 3:00 p.m. and concludes Sunday at 3:00pm. OUA all-stars and major award winners will be announced at the conclusion of the tournament.

OUA Squash Championship Schedule