The Dartmouth women's squash team debuted excellently in their annual home Invitational this weekend versus Franklin & Marshall, Smith and Williams, winning against all three.
"We knew we were the strongest team going into the weekend," remarked team Co-captain Lindsey Bishop '01.
Dartmouth held its own in all three matches, shutting out Smith and winning eight matches to one loss against both Franklin & Marshall and Williams, its toughest competitor.
Number-one Dartmouth player Charlotte Haldeman '03 lost the only match-up in the Franklin & Marshall contest, to Anjali Ponni Rajkumar. Number two player Farrar Evans '03 and number three Sara Connelly '01, the other co-captain, dominated their matches impressively against the F&M Diplomats.
Freshmen Crosby Haynes and Kaitlin Yaremchuk were victorious against all three opponents, showing a promising future for a very young team.
Freshmen Damon Grant and Sue Roy both began their college squash careers impressively also with wins against all three teams.
"These matches were a really great opportunity for us new players to gain match experience as part of the Dartmouth team," Grant said.
Finishing fourth in the Ivy League scrimmages last week, this year's team is up two spots from its usual sixth place seed. It beat out Cornell and Yale but fell short of Penn, Princeton and Harvard.
Head Coach John Power conveyed great pleasure in the strength of his sophomore players, especially this season.
Power said the team has "gotten off to a great start. We're rather young but these first successes have given us confidence."
The regular season picks up again with the Snowflake Tournament in early January.
