12th-ranked Women’s Squash Falls in Kurtz Cup Semifinals, Seals Record at 16-6

While the Middlebury men’s squash team has had a respite in matches over the past week in preparation for nationals, the women were busy competing in the national competition held at Yale Univ. this past weekend, Feb. 15-17. Going into the weekend, the Panthers were ranked 11th in the nation, and therefore played in the Kurtz cup for teams ranked in the 9-16 positions.

In their first match in the quarterfinals against Franklin & Marshall, the Panthers went 9-0 in match score with nearly all matches ending in three straight sets. The Panthers then moved on to the semifinals on Saturday to play Bates, but fell to the Bobcats by a match score of 3-6. The Panthers gained wins from Saskia Pownall-Gray ’16, Amanda Chen ’14, and Tiffany Hau ’16. Hau was the only Panther to remain undefeated over the course of the weekend.

After falling in the semifinals to Bates, the Panthers moved on to the third place match on Sunday and fell in an incredibly tight match to Columbia University by a match score of 4-5. The top four seeds, Charlotte Dewey ’15, Abby Jenkins ’14, Annie Wymard ’15, and Hau defeated their Columbia opponents. Meanwhile, three of the five remaining seeds played their matches to five sets in what was one of the Middlebury women’s closest matchups of the year. After falling to Columbia, Middlebury finished the tournament – and their season – with the number-twelve ranking nationally.

Number-one seed Dewey commented on the Panthers’ play this weekend and reflected on the season as a whole.

“Overall we were really happy with our performance this season,” she said. “Our national ranking and success over the course of the season can largely be attributed to the depth we have. Although it would have been nice to beat Columbia, we were really happy with our finish in nationals this past weekend. Everyone played their hearts out in that final match, and as a whole we ended the season with high spirits that should role on into next year.”

After seeing a very successful season this past year, it appears as though the Middlebury women’s team has a significant amount of young talent, and should be exciting to watch in years to come.

The men’s team will travel to Dartmouth to compete in Team Nationals Feb. 22-24. The men are ranked 16th nationally after falling most recently to St. Lawrence 9-0 on Feb. 6.

Both teams and the entire squash community saw their championship season schedule change as complications from winter storm Nemo forced the cancellation of the D3 singles invitational on Feb. 9. The men’s team will have to look to come out strong at Team Nationals despite having not competed in a match since Feb. 6.