The women’s squash team has been on top of its game since the turn of the calendar year to 2018. With a busy J-term, their rigorous practice schedule seems to be paying off. With a recent weekend sweep, the Panthers now hold a 1–0 conference record and 6–2 mark overall. They were 15th in the College Squash Association rankings heading into winter break and, with their recent results, they should maintain that spot.
Middlebury started the new year off with a tough loss to 14th-ranked Williams. Anne Glassie ’20 got the team’s only point as she won a five-set match over Williams’ Ananya Mahlingam-Dhingra in the fourth slot, with the score of 11–8, 11–9, 9–11, 4–11, 14–12. With her team down 8–0, Glassie’s win allowed the Panthers to walk out of Williams’ Simon Squash Center on a positive note.
After a 7–2 victory over No. 16 Amherst, the Panthers hit the road last weekend and stayed the weekend in Maine. That evening, the Panthers came out on top in one of their tightest matches of the season against Bates in a teeth-clenching 5–4 victory. Bates grabbed an early lead with a win at No. 3, but Lily Bogle ’18 quickly tied the match with a 9–11, 11–8, 11–4, 11–2 victory over Katie Bull at the bottom of the ladder.
After Bates took another match to go up 2–1, Mira Chugh ’20 brought the match to 2–2 with an easy straight-sets victory in the eighth slot (11–1, 11–3, 11–2).
Once again, the Bobcats regained a narrow edge after Kristyna Alexova defeated Bostwick in straight-sets in the second slot, but Emily Beinkampen ’21 tied it up for the Panthers with a straight-sets victory of her own in the seventh slot (11–7, 11–5, 11–5). Natalie Madden ’21 earned a hard-fought, four-set victory to give the Panthers the momentary lead. After dropping the second set 9–11, which tied things up at one set apiece, Madden pulled off back-to-back 12–10 victories over Katie Manternach in what was the match and performance of the day. After Bates evened things up, it set up a rubber match situation with Glassie still left to complete her match in the fourth slot. She did so in intense straight-set fashion, beating Maeve O’Brien 11–7, 13–11, 11–8.
The No. 15 Panthers took on No. 22 Colby the next day. In a complete sweep, the Panthers were led by Lowitt at the bottom of the ladder, who eased past her opponent with scores of 11–4, 11–1, 11–7, the recently-returned-from-abroad No. 3 Alexa Comai ’19 who won 11–6, 11–8, 11–7 and Beinkampen in the sixth slot who won by scores of 11–7, 11–4, 11–4. The second wave of wins came from the top-half of the ladder as Virginia Schaus ’21 won in the fifth slot 11–7, 13–11, 11–5, No. 2 Bostwick (14–12, 11–7, 11–4) and No. 4 Madden (11-6, 11–7, 11–4). Beatrijs Kuijpers ’19, who also recently returned from a semester abroad, won in the first slot 11–4, 11–8, 11–5, No. 7 Chugh won 11–4, 11–9, 11–5 and, finally, closing out the 9–0 sweep was Bogle who earned a victory in the eighth slot by scores of 11–6, 11–9, 11–7.
The Panthers rounded out the Maine trip with another complete sweep against Bowdoin on the same day. Middlebury quickly took a 3–0 advantage with another dominant performance at the bottom of the ladder from Lowitt (11–0, 11–0, 11–2), an almost equally dominant victory from Beinkampen in the sixth spot (11–2, 11–5, 11–2) and a four-set win by Comai in the third slot (7–11, 11–4, 11–5, 11–2). Chugh surrendered just eight points in the seventh spot (11–4, 11–0, 11–4). Bostwick tallied the eighth point with a four-game win at No. 2 (11–7, 8–11, 11–6, 11–4), and the No. 1, Kuijpers, concluded the scoring at No. 1 (11–2, 11–8, 11–6).
Yesterday afternoon the Panthers took on Trinity, who is coming off suffering its first loss of the season to Princeton. This weekend the Panthers will be playing Franklin & Marshall and Cornell at the squash center.
