Recent match play has found the men's and women's squash teams profiting from their vigorous fall training.
Both squads enjoyed 9-0 victories at their last matches, the men against Cornell and the women against Middlebury. The women were able to pull this victory off losing only one game to the Panthers.
The women welcomed this victory as they were just coming off of a tough 3-6 loss to Yale. This loss was disappointing because they had already beaten Yale at a scrimmage earlier in the season. Illness could be one explanation for this loss.
"Many of us were sick," Laurie Sykes '99 said.
Sykes was one of the three players to win at Yale. The other two were co-Captain Trisha Cunningham '96 at number nine and Victoria McEvoy '97 at number 10.
Heather Duckworth '98 played number one for the Big Green, while Melissa McCollum '96 played at number three. Position four was held by co-Captain Jenny Gallagher '96, followed by Jenny Johnson '99, Jenny Karlen '98, and Andra Winokur '99 at number eight.
Sykes said with three seniors and two juniors the team is very young.
"Everybody is learning from each other," she said. "We have great captains. As time goes on we will get better."
The team has "a lot of depth," Sykes said. "This helps when you play with each other [in practice]."
The men suffered a recent loss to Yale as well (2-7) but beat Navy 8-1 on the same day. Lead by co-Captain Scott Hammond '96 the men are dealing with a lineup that "seems to move around a lot," Hammond said.
Hammond is backed by Russell Echlov '97 at number two. John Gabel '98 plays number three, co-Captain John-Keith Wasson '96 number four, and Will Leicht '99 number five. The rest of the lineup is made of Zach Segal '98, Tucker Richmond '99, Bill Tarr '98, and Ross Hallock '97.
Hammond said most of the lineup changes have been made between positions five and eight. He said this is "pretty healthy" as it keeps the players always ready for a challenge from their teammates.
Both Sykes and Hammond said they are happy under the guidance of Coach Chris Brownell. Sykes said Brownell "gets on the court with us and plays. She's not too positive or too negative and makes us work really hard. And we see a lot of results."
Both squads will face Amherst at home this week in their next match. The men play on Wednesday at 3:00 p.m., while the women play Thursday at 5:00 p.m.
For the men, Hammond said that this match, as well as this weekend's matches against Trinity and Vassar, will be very important.As the women look into the future they prepare for two of the season's biggest matches against Penn and Princeton on Feb. 3 and 4. Before then, however, they will face stiff competition from Amherst.
