AUG Team Profile - Squash
How has your team gone in the past?
The Monash team in the past has been the Sydney Swans of University games – consistently making the finals, but suffering badly from injury and circumstance. The last gold for the men’s team was in 2015, whilst the girls took home silver last year.
How is the team looking?
The team this year is looking scarier than Toby Greene’s right hook. The women have a solid backbone of tennis experience and are led by veteran Shaylee Mann, whose skills would give most of the men a run for their money. Leading the men’s team, with squash ability in inverse proportion to his height, is pocket dynamo Darren Chan. Both teams bat deep and confidence is running high.
The goal of your team?
The team is obviously hungry for success, a great aspect of University games is getting to play solid squash with players from around Australia. There are some very good players at University games, and the team is excited for a challenge against athletes they wouldn’t otherwise get to play.
Who are the teams to beat in the competition?
Scoping out the competition before University games is about as straightforward as getting a perfect round in footy tipping this year. Nevertheless, it always pays to watch out for La Trobe. Their banter is usually vastly superior to their squash ability, but they’ve upped the ante in recent years with a couple of young guns who’re putting the squash and banter on an equal footing. Adelaide University are returning this year with a new-look outfit – it’s not clear whether this will be a Collingwood or Sydney style rebuild, but Adelaide are traditionally very competitive!
Who to look out for?
The odds are shortening on Darren Chan to go the entire tournament without dropping a single set, following a stellar performance recently in which he took the World No. 40 to five sets! Look out for University games
rookies Nic Gibbs and Benedict Long to play excellent squash at second and third seeds on the men’s team – Nic is banging on the door of Victoria’s top 50 and Benedict isn’t far behind.
On the girl’s team, look out for Zoe Lineham and Anita Karapanos, who are both converting years of competitive tennis and excellent fitness into high performance on the squash court. Shaylee Mann at first seed brings a wealth of squash experience as well as drop shots that would make James Willstrop weep.
Good luck to the squash teams, all of Monash is right behind you!! 🏆
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