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Herden heats up at second annual Nash Cup

The squash will be served red hot at Mustangs Thanksgiving this year.
At the second annual Nash Cup — a professional squash tournament at the London Squash Racquets Club — several Mustangs took the court to face off against professional squash players.
The tournament was started not only to bring a professional squash tournament to Ontario, but also to give the Mustangs — who get four entries in the qualifying round — a venue to prepare for their season.
“It’s really special for the Mustang players to have this opportunity,” LSRC incoming President Jay Nash said. “Our relationship with Western and the Mustangs program is critical. It’s the whole reason this tournament started.”
The story of the tournament for the Mustangs was Victoria, B.C.’s Ryan Herden, who challenged several squash professionals against all odds.
Herden came out strong in his qualifier against Canadian Maxym Leclair, a Professional Squash Association player who is ranked 265th in the world. After splitting the first two games, Herden took over, dominating the last two to take the match 3-1 in 33 minutes.
“[Herden] played an aggressive, high-tempo match,” Mustangs assistant coach Andrew Mount said. “He was relentless with his volleys [and] he slipped in a few deceptive cross-court [shots].”
Herden’s impressive victory over LeClair earned him a berth in the second round of qualifying on Wednesday and a tough match against Khayal Khan of Pakistan.
Khan, a 26-year-old professional squash player who has ranked as high as 47th in the world, had beaten Herden’s teammate Kimesh Chetty in three straight sets in the first round of qualifying.
“I talked to Kimesh a bit about what to expect from [Khan],” Herden said. “I came into the match really fired up.”
Motivation was not enough for Herden, however, as Khan beat him in straight sets 11-8, 11-8, 11-7.
“I don’t think I could have won that match — he just put me under too much pressure,” Herden said.
Despite being eliminated in the second round of qualifying, Herden was the beneficiary of some extraordinary luck when the third seed in the tournament, Regardt Schonborn of South Africa, was unable to enter the country because of an issue with his visa.
The names of the four players eliminated in the second round of qualifying were thrown in a hat to determine who would take his third seed — Herden won the draw.
“It was incredibly lucky on my part,” Herden said. “It was a second life for me.”
Herden — suddenly the third seed in a professional squash tournament—took on Lefika Ragontse of Botswana Wednesday night with a packed crowd behind him.
Nerves got the better of Herden as he was schooled 11-4 in the first round by Ragontse, who was ranked 158th in the world in September. However, he battled back in the second match, earning a hard-fought 11-7 victory.
“[Herden] was firing on all cylinders,” Mount said. “He established his length, moved his opponent side-to-side effectively and mixed in some deceptive play in the front court.”
Herden quickly ran out of gas against the professional however, dropping the next two sets 11-9 and 11-6 to end his Cinderella tournament.
“By the third game I was just trying to hold on,” Herden said of his 40- minute match against Lefika.
Herden’s strong showing is indicative of just how strong this Mustangs squash program — which has won 26 straight Ontario University Athletics championships — really is.
“You’ve got a team without any competition in Canada. They crush everyone coast-to-coast,” Nash said. “We are really trying to raise the profile of this team because they are the best around.”
Herden, who can now boast of his success against some of the best squash players in the world, is not particularly worried.
“We don’t worry about the pressure of the streak or anything.  We’re just going to go out and play our game,” he said. “We have a really strong team, so as long as our team plays our game, I don’t think there will be a problem continuing the streak.”

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