Squash season comes to close Panthers finish 14th in Howe Cup tourney

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The Panthers ended their season on a high note on Saturday, placing 14th overall at the Howe Cup, the national championship for women's squash at Harvard. The team finished sixth in the B flight, winning one match and losing two. Seeded 16th going into the tournament, the Panthers were placed in the B flight for the first time in team history.

In their first match, the Panthers played ninth-seeded Cornell. The team lost 9-0, but came back strong in its next match against 12th-seeded Connecticut College, winning 6-3. In that match, Hannah Baker '07, Avery Tilney '09, Kara Zarchin '06, Caitlin Flint '06, Liz Parker '07 and Brooke Farquhar '08 all won their matches against the Camels.

This was a big win for Middlebury, since Connecticut College had beaten the Panthers earlier this month 5-4 at Trinity. "It was great to beat Conn after losing to them two weeks earlier," said Flint.

After upsetting Connecticut College, the Panthers dropped a tough match to St. Lawrence in a game for 13th place at the Howe Cup. The Panthers pulled out wins in four of the matches, and took three others to five games, but were not able to win the fifth match needed to beat the Saints in what was a "tight match," according to Flint. Tilney, Zarchin, Flint and Farquhar all won matches against St. Lawrence, giving all of them 2-1 records for the tournament.

The Panthers' strong performance at the Howe Cup, which surpassed the consecutive C flight championships that they won the two previous years, capped off a busy stretch at the end of the season. The Panthers went into the Howe Cup following a 5-4 win over NESCAC rival Amherst on Feb. 20. "We beat Amherst 5-4 twice this season," said Flint, "and were very excited about that accomplishment."

Additionally, the Panthers held a four-match winning streak from Jan. 27 to Feb. 10, dominating Smith and Hamilton 9-0 and 8-1, respectively, and squeezing past Franklin & Marshall and William Smith, beating both of those teams 5-4. On Feb. 11, the Panthers lost to both Williams and Connecticut College at the Trinity Invitational.

Next year, the Panthers look to improve upon this year's finish in the B flight. One of the keys to doing that, according to Flint, will be to turn 5-4 losses into wins throughout the year and get to the point where earning a better seed in the Howe Cup at the end of the season is simply automatic.