The StreetSquash High School Boys A team won at SEA Team Nationals for the third consecutive year, as they showed complete dominance with no player on the team losing a single match during the three-day tournament. Meanwhile, the High School Girls B team also secured a championship, showing inspiring resilience to earn their way to the top.
The Girls got off to a quick start on Friday afternoon with all team members winning their matches against First State Squash, the program from Delaware.
“We were very intentional with their preparation leading up to teams,” High School coach Katiria Sanchez said. “We made sure that our bottom three girls on that team were getting their lessons. We had additional semi-private lessons for them in the three weeks leading up to Teams.”
She added that the team being dedicated to their training helped prepare them for the high stakes.
“If there were days the girls couldn’t come to practice, they still booked a court, took a lesson, or hit solo with the ball machines,” coach Katiria said. “It really helped with their confidence.”
Katiria added that the moment the Girls team showed up on Friday, they were mentally in the right head space.
“From that first meeting we had, it was like we’re going to run down every ball, and you’re not going to show at any point that you are giving up,” coach Katiria said.
Later Friday evening, StreetSquash faced their first tough test of the weekend against SquashBusters Lawrence.
Senior Hayley R. and Junior Angela R. were first on court for StreetSquash. The match was tied 1-1 following their two matches. Junior Janae A. and Senior Sienna M. were up next. They also split, leveling the match at 2-2 and leaving things up to the number ones to settle the score. Senior Khissaiyia S. for StreetSquash came on court with determination and swept her match securing a 3-2 victory for the Girls, propelling them into the semifinals on Saturday.
Saturday’s semifinal match against Mission Squash, the program from Houston, looked similar to Friday night’s quarterfinal match with the score knotted at two and Khissaiyia needing to settle the match. For the second consecutive day, the senior swept her match and her win sent the Girls into the High School Girls B championship on Sunday.
In the finals against Rally Portland, the program from Portland, Maine, StreetSquash quickly fell into a deficit 2-0 meaning the final three girls on court had to win their matches to secure the championship.
Janae A. quickly went up 2-0 but her opponent battled back to tie things at two. Janae showed poise and determination to win the fifth game 11-8 and kept StreetSquash in the match.
“To be honest, those matches that were 3-2 came down to the support,” coach Katiria said. “Having both the middle school and high school present and even kids that weren’t playing but came to Philadelphia to support, those little things help.”
She added that during Janae’s match, everyone was there to cheer her on.
“The boys came over and started rallying her up,” Katiria said. “At that point, it also disrupted her opponent. You could tell her opponent got very nervous. She was looking around, but that’s just part of the sport. Those little factors make a difference.”
Next on court was Sienna who quickly fell behind 1-0 but came back in the next two games to show that she was a force to be reckoned with. She won game two 11-1 and game three 11-4. But her opponent showed that she wasn’t going down easily and had a dominant game four topping Sienna 11-2. The decisive game five was much closer but it was Sienna who prevailed winning 11-8 meaning that for the third consecutive match, it was Khissaiyia who was going to decide the match.
Khissaiyia was locked in coming out strong and winning the first two games. But Rally Portland wasn’t going to make things easy as in the blink of an eye the match was tied at two. Khissaiyia walked on court in the decisive game five with a look in her eye that showed nothing would stop her from winning.
And win she did. Her 11-6 victory secured the High School Girls as B division champions.
“If I had to choose anyone on the team to be the decider, it would be Khissaiyia,” Katiria said. “She’s a runner. She ran down every ball, she looked like the fitter player, and she was getting everything to the back.”
The Boys’ road to victory was smoother. Coming into the weekend as back-to-back champions, they had a first-round bye meaning their first match would come in the quarterfinals.
“The boys were locked in from the moment we started the week, not even just the first day of SEA Teams,” Katiria said. “They were fired up and had great support and momentum.”
On Friday night, the Boys began their journey against CitySquash, the rival intra-NYC program located in the Bronx. StreetSquash had a perfect sweep with all five players winning their matches 3-0. In the semifinals on Saturday, it was near perfection again against Capitol Squash, the program from Hartford, Connecticut. The Boys had three sweeps, with the other two matches being 3-1 victories.
On Sunday, the Boys took on SquashBusters Providence in the finals and it was another quick win involving three sweeps and two one-loss matches.
In the 15 matches the Boys played, they only suffered four lost games total and secured the teams’ place as three-peat champions.
Katiria says three straight wins isn’t a dynasty quite yet.
“I think five is when I start to get braggy about it,” Katiria joked.
She says the Boys team takes their work seriously which helps separate them from the rest of the pack in the SEA.
“They understand what it takes to be at the level they want to be at,” Katiria said. “They take the initiative to take extra lessons and book extra court time.”
She also said that despite what the scoreboard shows, the matches weren’t as easy as they looked.
“It was good squash but it wasn’t easy squash,” Katiria said. “They had to be smart about the shots they were choosing and the pace they were choosing. But it speaks to the caliber of the team and how hard they trained.”
The Boys’ team has only one senior, albeit he’s their number one player. But with a majority of the team remaining in place, they’re likely to be favored to win it all again in 2025.
In addition, for the first time since before the pandemic, StreetSquash sent two middle school teams to compete at Nationals. One girls team and one boys team also traveled to Philadelphia. The girls finished in fourth place in the main bracket, an impressive showing for a group of students that has just one year of squash under their belt.
“The girls being strong enough to be in the A division and come out in fourth place at SEA Nationals is quite incredible,” middle school coach Joanne Schickerling said.
The Boys, also with just a year of experience won two of the four matches they played.
“I’m just really proud of both teams,” Joanne said. “Most of our players have been playing a little over a year, some of them less than a year. For them to be playing against other programs who have been taking teams for years and playing other students who might be at their second or third middle school nationals, it was great to see them compete.”
Leading up to the event, the middle school participants were putting in a little extra work to make sure they were ready for the competition.
“For the last month, we had players do small group sessions with the coaches,” Joanne said. “We focused specifically on serves, on returns, and being able to handle a little bit more pace.”
She says last year, the kids were only getting about 50% of their serves in and she felt that wasn’t good enough to send them to SEA Teams. But this year, they were getting up to 90% of their serves in.
They also gained experience playing in other events.
“I took them to the Fairwest Middle School Jamboree, some bronze tournaments, took them to bronze city-wide league matches,” Joanne said. “So them just having more match play experience helped prepare them for SEA Teams this year. Last year by the time SEA Teams came around, they had only played two matches previously.”
Coach Joanne added that the experience of playing at SEA Team Nationals should be a big advantage next year.
“I can’t wait to see how they’re going to learn and gain from this experience and do even better next year,” coach Joanne said.
