Reeham Salah wins U.S. College Squash championship

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Reeham Salah, who is now a junior at the University of Pennsylvania,  won the College Squash Association’s Individual championship match on her third attempt.

“I’m extremely proud of Reeham. She worked so hard to earn this title. I know she felt tremendous pressure to win this year—having finished second twice. I expect this achievement will give her the confidence to go on and win more titles,” said head coach Jack Wyant.

Salah lost to Kanzy El Defrawy from Trinity in her freshman year and Georgina Kennedy from Harvard, last season but won against her this time around by winning in four games.

Winning the title for the third time has been special for Salah though, as she has now become the university’s first national champion since Jessica DiMauro in 1996.

According to the university press release, Salah had been on a mission all season and she went undefeated into the regular season with a score of 13-0.

She added three more wins at the Howe Cup team championships increasing her score to 16-0, and she finished off the season with a 20-0 record, gaining four wins in the Ramsay Cup.

Though she did lose two games this season, she still won the Ivy League Player of the Year for the second year in a row and became the only player in program’s history to win the award back-to-back.

According to The Daily Pennsylvanian, last year Salah travelled to France to compete for Team USA in the World Women’s Team Squash Championships and she was awarded Female Player of the Month for January by the Squash Player Magazine.

“It definitely was such an honor to be nominated and win the Player of the Month in the world award for squash. The last few months the award was given to number 1, 2, and 3 in the world, so to be in a batch with such successful squash players humbles me greatly,” Salah told The Daily Pennsylvanian.

(This story was revised on March 16.)