Seeded first in the “D” Division at last weekend’s Howe Cup, the team national championship competition, the women’s squash team dominated against familiar opponents Northeastern and Smith before falling 1-8 in Sunday’s final against St. Lawrence.
Wesleyan opened the tournament Friday with a 9-0 victory over Northeastern, its second win of the season against the Huskies. Top seed Casey Simchik ’10 and second seed Gwynne Hunter ’10 both earned 3-1 wins, and the rest of the Cardinals followed their lead en route to the sweep victory.
“This [Northeastern] player had a hard time returning my serve so I played that to my advantage,” said number four seed Andrea Giuliano ’09 of her 3-0 win.
Saturday, the Cardinals faced and beat Smith for the third time this season, defeating the Pioneers, 7-2. Though Hunter lost her match 0-3 and third seed Liz Demakos ’09 suffered a close 2-3 defeat, seventh seed Katie Kalafus ’09 won her match 3-1 and the rest of the team picked up the slack, all triumphing 3-0 in their respective matches.
“We played very hard against them. We did a good job of playing good squash against Northeastern and Smith. We capitalized on their weaknesses very well,” said captain and sixth seed Nicole Gray ’08.
The Cards’ previous matches this year against Smith allowed the them to adjust and be fully prepared for Saturday’s match.
“Earlier this year, when we first played Smith, I played a different girl who was better than the girl I played the last two times,” Giuliano said. “However, between the times our team played Smith, we played excellent competition and I was able to improve my game through those matches.”
Saturday’s victory over the Pioneers put the Cardinal’s in Sunday’s championship match against St. Lawrence.
“I was somewhat nervous going into the St. Lawrence match because we had not played them this season,” Giuliano said.
Giuliano suffered a hard-fought 2-3 loss in her match against St. Lawrence. She opened the match 2-0.
“I had won the first two games, not decisively, but with confidence and had frustrated my opponent,” she said. “I had used a very short game because she liked to play deep shots and force me to dig it out of the back.”
Down 0-2, though, St. Lawrence’s Caitlyn Cimikoski began varying her playing style.
“She [Cimikoski] unfortunately adjusted to play more like Andrea, putting in a lot of difficult drops,” Gray said.
Despite the struggle, Giuliano continued to battle until the end.
“One of the last points of the game, Andrea ‘flexed her muscles,’ so to speak, by introducing the body check as a new squash move,” Gray said. “Andrea Giuliano did not go down without a fight, as a collision left her opponent flat on her back. It was the greatest thing I’d ever seen.”
In her own match, Gray enjoyed a 3-0 victory—the only Cardinal win in the last team match of the season. She also posted the team’s best individual record for the year, going 12-11 while the top-seeded Simchik followed with a 10-13 record. As a team, the Cardinal’s finished with a record of 7-16.
“This year we may not have won all of our matches, but every one of the players developed their games and improved every time we stepped on the court,” Giuliano said.
The squad is eager to add to this year’s solid showing and should benefit from a veteran lineup next season.
“We are lucky to have all our players returning for next season. The Epps Cup will be ours next season,” Gray said.
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