Middletown became a hub of New England squash last weekend as the women’s team hosted the annual Wesleyan Invitational. The Lady Cards played five matches and won two, including 7-2 victories over Smith and George Washington. While the women were battling on their home courts, the men traveled up to Trinity, where they lost two closely fought matches against Tufts (5-4) and Hamilton (7-2).
The women registered their first victory of the season against the George Washington Colonials. Having started the day with two 9-0 defeats at the hands of Middlebury and Bates, the Lady Cards were ready to rain on someone else’s parade.
“We had heard we’d have a good chance [against George Washington], and we all played well,” said women’s co-captain Shani Pavel ’05.
At the top of the ladder, Sarah Hopkins ’06 won the first of what would be three straight triumphs in the Invitational, defeating her Colonial opponent in straight games. Aside from Hopkins, the women received 3-0 wins from Rachael Epstein ’05, Megan Gauvey-Kern ’05 and Maddie Rottman ’08. Pavel, Intan Nurhati ’06 and Lirra Schiebler ’07 also tallied wins for the Red and Black.
On Saturday, the women recorded their second win of the weekend with a 7-2 conquest of the Smith Pioneers. It was mostly the same cast of Cardinals entering the winner’s column, with Awilda Rivera ’06 joining the victory parade with a 3-1 win from the number three position.
As the women notched some impressive showings at home, the men were facing some tough competition just up the road in Hartford, Conn. Against Tufts, the Cardinals found themselves in closely contested match. Andy Aylward ’07, Dylan Rau ’07 and Umay Suanda ’05 were able to sweep their opponents away to get three quick wins. Devin Gorman-Darif ’08 prevailed in 3-1 fashion, leaving the men just one win shy of victory.
That fifth win, however would not come. Evan Lodge ’08 played well in the second position, coming back from a 2-1 deficit to force a deciding fifth set, but Lodge fell 9-1 in the last frame.
“We expected Tufts to be a good match, and the 5-4 score proved us right; however, we are looking forward to playing them again to switch the results of some of the closer matches,” said co-captain Andrew Rozas ’06.
Against Hamilton, the team came out flat. While Rozas and Lodge were able to take wins at the top of the ladder, the rest of the team was unable to put up much of a fight, taking only a combined two games from the bottom seven positions.
The men have another tough match on Saturday, this time against the Columbia Lions.
“Before our match against Hamilton, I would have said we have a really good chance of winning against Columbia,” Rozas said. “However, from now on, we know we have to look at every match as though it may be a 5-4 turnout.”
As for the women, their fall season wrapped play for the semester with the win over Smith.
“I think we’re off to a pretty good start,” Pavel said. “Two wins against GW and Smith, and a number of competitive matches.”
In looking ahead to the spring semester, the team will have to compete without Hopkins, who appeared to be settling in nicely to the idea of playing number one seed. Also missing due to study abroad will be number nine seed, Schiebler.
Whatever the composition of the new team, the squad will debut in the new athletic addition against Connecticut College on Feb. 2.
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