Incredible Women’s hat trick for the prestigious American University. Rob Dinnerman attracted our attention on this remarkable week for the University…
Zeina Zen, Olivia Weaver and Mollie Marcoux Samaan.
What a week for Princeton!
By Rob Dinerman
This past week has been a momentous and memorable one in the squash world for Princeton athletes past and present on multiple fronts.
On Tuesday afternoon, January 27th, Princeton junior Zeina Zein successfully defended her 2025 Women’s College Individual Squash Championship with an airtight 11-8, 12-10, 5-11, 14-12 final-round victory over Harvard star Caroline Fouts to become the first Princeton woman to win this prestigious championship back-to-back in the quarter-century since Julia Beaver won the last of her three-straight Individuals in 2001.
Zein’s narrow triumph, coming one day after she had beaten her freshman teammate Alexandra Jaffe in the semis, occurred on the portable four-glass-wall court that had been erected in Grand Central Station to host the Tournament of Champions (ToC), one of the most important events of the PSA professional tour.
At the very same venue one day later, former Tiger four-time first-team All-American Olivia Weaver (Princeton Class of 2018), who had been in the gallery cheering Zein on during the Individuals final, hammered Fayrouz Aboelkheir 3-0 in the ToC semis, then nearly won the Thursday-night final as well before being barely edged out by current World No. 1 Hania El Hammamy, 11-9 in the fifth game.
Finally, Mollie Marcoux Samaan (Princeton Class of ’91) began her tenure as US Squash CEO on the 31st Jan, having been appointed to succeed Kevin Klipstein after the latter’s two-decades-plus in that important role.
Samaan, a two-sport (soccer and ice hockey) stand-out athlete at Princeton whose senior thesis was on the history of women in sports from 1885-1946, was named the recipient of the 1991 Otto von Kienbusch Award as Princeton’s outstanding woman senior athlete and later served from 2014-21 as Director of Athletics at her alma mater.
Complementing this Princeton-squash college/professional/administrative trifecta (all within less than one week) were the sweeps during the weekend that both the Princeton men’s and women’s squash teams recorded over Cornell and Columbia respectively.
The college squash season is now entering its main stretch, and the Tigers figure to be right in the thick of it, especially the Zein-led women’s team, which didn’t drop a single match throughout this past weekend and is a prime contender to win the national team championship when that tournament is held early next month..
Stay Tuned…
