Women’s squash falls in NESCAC championship

Last weekend, the Middlebury women’s squash team finished second overall at the fifth annual NESCAC Team Championships in Hartford, Ct., home of the Trinity College Bantams. The Panthers fell to the host school 9-0 in the final round on Sunday, in a matchup lacking the intensity and overall importance of the previous evenings battle at the Ferris Athletic Center.

On Saturday night, the Panthers defeated the ninth-ranked and second-seeded Williams College Ephs, a squad heavily favored to place second to the seemingly untouchable Bantams. In convincing 6-3 fashion, Middlebury upset the Ephs, taking second place in the Championship for the first time in the five-year history of the event.

After the Panthers defeated Hamilton College 9-0, Middlebury and Williams met in the tournament’s semifinal round several hours later than expected as matches between other colleges lasted longer than anticipated. A long layover between morning and afternoon matches did not deter the Panthers who felt destined to overcome the once unbeatable Ephs. By match time, the intensity was palpable, as several events outside of Middlebury’s control inspired new confidence in the 11th-ranked and third-seeded Panthers.

On Friday night, as both the men’s and women’s Middlebury squash teams stopped for dinner at the home of Panther sophomore Annie Ulrich’s ’13 family at the Westminster School in Connecticut, the women’s teams from Williams and Brown University faced off in a match the would prove to be a barometer for the Panthers’ chances that weekend. After discovering that Brown, a team that defeated the Panthers 5-4 just two weeks earlier, had beaten Williams 5-4, few could help but speculate as to the Panthers’ prospects for the NESCAC Championship.

“It reaffirmed our belief that we had a solid chance of winning that match [against Williams]” said Jamie Burchfield ’12, a seasoned veteran of crunch time matches. “Even though we fell just short against Brown, we were confident that a victory against them, and Williams, were well within our reach.”

From the start, the Panthers set the tone against the Ephs, winning all but one of the first round of matches. At number ten, Burchfield helped inspire her teammates with a gutsy five-game victory over Gibbs Cullen from Williams. Meanwhile, Ulrich and Lindsay Becker ’13 and co-captain Kathryn Bostwick ’12 recorded the first three wins for Middlebury at numbers eight, six and four, respectively. Abby Jenkins ’14 lost her match at number two against Laura Henry from Williams, who rallied to win the fourth and final game by a narrow, 13-11 margin.

Next on court were Katie Yates ’14 and Amanda Chen ’14, Molly Hubbard ’13, co-captain Virginia Shannon ’11 and Elena Laird ’11.5, playing numbers nine, seven, five, three and one, respectively. It was Chen who delivered the decisive blow after Yates gave the Panthers a fourth win, placing them on the brink of an upset. Chen clinched the fifth and decisive match with a tidy, four-game victory over Eliana Saltzman.
In a bizarre turn of events, most likely as a result of exhaustion combined with the sting of defeat, several of the players from the Williams team began shedding tears during their matches, helping Hubbard claim a sixth victory for Middlebury.

Despite losses at the top three positions, the victory for Middlebury ushered in a new era of success for the College’s squash program. When the College Squash Association releases its rankings this week, the Panthers will likely find themselves in the top 10 nationally, a position never held by a Middlebury squash team, men or women.

“Our win over Williams was really exciting; not only was it the first time we have beaten Williams but it will probably put us in the top ten, showing how far we have come” said Bostwick. “We have improved markedly in the last three years. We created a lot of buzz in the preseason and we are living up to those expectations so far.”

The Ephs will get another shot at the Panthers this weekend, as Middlebury plays host to Dartmouth College on Saturday and Williams on Sunday. Both Middlebury teams will be in action all weekend.