Women's squash dominates over field on way to Cup win

Author: Zamir Ahmed

The Middlebury women's squash team capped off a successful season last weekend by capturing the Walker Cup at Princeton University for the second straight year. The Walker Cup goes to the winner of the 'C' division of the Howe Cup, the most prestigious title in women's collegiate squash.

In their three team victories at the tournament the team dropped only six individual matches out of 27. The team was lead by Holly Haertel '05, Ashley Pullen '05, Kara Zarchin '06 and first-year Ellie Buechner, all of whom went 3-0 at the tournament.

This year, Yale University took the top prize for the second year in a row, finishing the year undefeated with a record of 14-0.

On Friday, the Panthers took on Wellesley College in the first round of the competition. Middlebury dropped only one match on its way to an easy win by a score of 8-1. The team then moved on to the semifinals held on Feb. 19, where they faced Stanford University. The team posted a win in that match by a score of 8-1. The team's only loss against Stanford was suffered by number-one Hannah Baker '07, who lost to the Cardinals' first-year standout Brooksie Riley.

On Sunday, Middlebury met Vassar College in the finals of the tournament. In an exciting match-up the Panthers managed to escape a tough fight put up by the Brewers and prevailed by a score of 5-4. The Panthers got wins from Baker, number-two Haertel, number-seven Zarchin, number-eight Beuchner and number-nine Pullen.

"The match could've gone either way," said Head Coach David Saward. "I think Hannah Baker did a great job of steadying herself after losing the first game and pulling us through."

The team's performance at the Walker Cup improved the Panthers' record to 8-5 on the season. The team also finishes the year ranked 17th in the nation. Although the team had a couple of disappointing losses at the beginning of the year, including 5-4 losses to Tufts University and St. Lawrence College, the Panthers can take pride in their end-of-the-year result.

"As a coach, you hope your team is playing its best at the end of the year and I think we did that," said Saward.

The team will now look to use their back-to-back wins at the Walker Cup to gain more respect in the region. The Panthers' biggest challenge is to get more teams to play at Middlebury in the coming seasons. The team played its first home game ever last season but did not host any games this year.

After dominating the field in the Walker Cup for the past two seasons, the Panthers hope to make the jump to the 'B' Division of the Howe Cup, the division the team played in until a few seasons ago. The team also hopes that new recruits in the coming years will help them become a force in collegiate competition.