The women’s squash team traveled to Harvard University last weekend to play in the Walker Cup Division of the College Squash Association National Championships. Ranked sixth in the division, the Cards finished tied for fifth, losing to Bowdoin and beating The University of Virginia. Snow in Mass. forced the team to cancel its match scheduled for Sunday against St. Lawrence University. This match would have determined the 21st and 22nd ranked teams in the nation, similar to last season where Wesleyan finished 21st in the nation after a fifth place performance in the Walker Cup.
After a close 5-4 loss to 19th-ranked Bowdoin earlier in the year, the Cards expected to compete with the Polar Bears yet again, and hoped to garner an important victory. Unfortunately, Bowdoin came back stronger with an injured player returned to her number-two spot on its ladder. This complicated matters for the Cardinals, and resulted in a 8-1 defeat that included seven 3-0 losses. As expected, Laila Samy ’18 earned a victory for the team at the top spot in straight games.
Claire Miller ’15 stated that the Cardinals were taken aback by Bowdoin’s renewed strength.
“Bowdoin kind of took us by surprise,” Miller wrote in an email to The Argus. “They came out firing and the match was over before we knew it, which was a huge bummer. We’ve always been neck and neck with them and we hoped this was our time to finally make that push past them in the rankings.”
Bowdoin went on to upset 18th-seeded Hamilton before being upended in the finals by the favorite in the bracket, 17th ranked Amherst.
The Cardinals turned around, though, and walked over 23rd ranked UVA, collecting an 8-1 victory that included eight 3-0 wins.
Ashley Suan ’18 praised her team’s performance.
“It was great to play UVA in our second round since we hadn’t played them at all this season,” Suan said. “The matches overall were really good. Annie Ferreira [’17] had a very exciting five-game match, coming back from two games down to win.”
Miller was similarly impressed.
“I was so proud of the way everyone played,” she wrote. “Even though we had to cancel our match against St. Lawrence, I couldn’t have been happier to end the season with that decisive of a win.”
As a senior, Miller was pleased with her season and felt that she was leaving Wesleyan squash in the right way.
“All scores aside, this weekend I felt like the team really came together on a whole new level to support, coach, and cheer for one another and that’s a great, great feeling to leave off with.”
Head Coach Shona Kerr intimated a similar optimism with the season.
“I loved coaching this group this season and am looking forward to the individual championships at Princeton in 2 weeks with as many women as we can get into the draw,” Kerr wrote in an email to The Argus.
The season was up and down overall for the squad. Highlights included beating NESCAC opposition Conn College and Tufts twice, each in convincing fashion. The team’s other wins came versus William Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, Boston University, and The University of Virginia. The Cards came up just short against Colby on two occasions, and nearly knocked off Bowdoin on its first go-around.
Samy took home the Division III Individual Championship, and finished her undefeated season at 17-0, without losing even a single game. This meant that, impressively, the Cardinals had at least one win on the board in every match they played. The team will say goodbye to five seniors, including Captain Lauren Nelson ’15, who has been a mainstay at the top of the ladder in her time at Wesleyan.
The team ended the season with an 8-12 record, a small drop-off from last year’s 11-9 mark. This difference can be equated to a tougher non-conference schedule this season, including matches versus Princeton University and Brown University.
The Cardinals will be rooting on the undefeated Samy two weeks from now at the Individual National Championships in Princeton, NJ. Samy will be in hot contention for the title, and although there will be some steep competition, the first-year standout has already shown she can win big matches such as a 3-0 sweep of Olivia Fiechter from Princeton, the top United States recruit in the Class of 2014.