The women’s squash team played solidly in the NESCAC Championship over the weekend, winning the Consolation bracket and finishing ninth overall. The Cardinals, after losing a first-round match to Amherst, recovered and won a pair of matches against Connecticut College and Colby to improve their overall record to 10-9.
Wesleyan, seeded 10th going into the tournament, was excused by 7th-seeded Amherst by a 6-3 score in a match played at Trinity College, with co-captain Andrea Giuliano ’09, Katie Kalafus ’09, and Caroline Fox ’12 winning their matches. Despite the frustrating loss, Kalafus noted that the Cardinals are pleased with the close result.
“It was exciting to even come close to beating Amherst,” said Kalafus. “We’re playing them again this weekend, and I think we can win, which would be huge.”
The Cards then returned home Saturday for the consolation series and dominated Conn. College, 7-2. While the two losses came at the hands of the Camels’ top two seeds, the team as a whole stepped in to get the job done as both veteran and younger players showed their stuff on the courts. Giuliano and Liz Demakos ’09 both enjoyed victories, as did Fox and Jenny Chu ’11.
The team’s next match against Colby played out similarly, as Wesleyan’s top four seeds were taken down. However, the lower half of the ladder again stepped up to shove aside the Mules, with graduate student Keera Bhandari, Chu, Kalafus, Fox, and Rachael Ghorbani ’09 all winning, propelling the Cards to a 5-4 victory.
“We have a deep ladder this year, which is a huge advantage over other schools,”
said Demakos. “Not only does everyone have a great attitude and passion for the game, but we’ve been performing incredibly well. We’ve been beating teams who never saw it coming and making a proud name for the Wesleyan women’s squash team. With Nationals just two weeks away, we’re facing the best and most prolific season of my four years on the team.”
Wesleyan’s success so far this season comes as an illustration of the vast improvement of the program in recent years. Often pitted against bigger schools with far more widespread recruiting, the Cards have done well for themselves lately, thanks in part to head coach Shona Kerr, in her fourth year in Middletown. Under her leadership, the program has reached new heights, with an expanding roster and strong players up and down the ladder.
A newly released national ranking now notches the Cardinals at #20, a truly impressive position given that the list is dominated by powerhouses such as Harvard, Princeton and UPenn. With the National Team Tournament coming up in a few weeks, it would be wise to keep an eye out for this barnstorming Wesleyan team.
First, the squad will look to keep rolling in this weekend’s Little Three matches. Excited to settle the score with Amherst, Wesleyan will take on the Lord Jeffs Saturday morning, followed by a battle with Williams. Wesleyan then heads to Vassar for an evening match followed by two duels on Sunday.
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