While Dartmouth's women's squash team hit low points at the Howe Cup tournament with 9-0 losses to No. 3 Yale and No. 5 Harvard, the squad beat No. 7 Brown 7-2 , improving its 5-4 regular season record with the win over the Bears.
Following last weekend's tournament, Dartmouth (10-6, 2-4 Ivy) finished its season as the No. 6 team in the country.
The Big Green saw few bright spots against Yale (11-2, 4-2 Ivy) on Saturday. Only Hannah Conant '11 and co-captain Christie Alexander '08 were able to play past the three-game minimum.
Alexander won the third game of her match before losing the match in the fourth. Conant won her first and fourth games before being defeated 3-2.
Dartmouth's match against Brown (6-7, 1-5 Ivy) was considerably more successful and ended in a sweep of the top six spots by the Big Green women.
"While the match against Brown during the season was a very close one, we came out strong and relentless and were able to win decisively on Saturday," Alexander said.
Coach Power was pleased with the results of the Brown match.
"We went in [at No. 6] and we came out [at No. 6]," he said. "The only match we really could have won was Brown. We won 5-4 in the season, and to turn it around and win 7-2 showed a good performance."
Against Brown, co-captains Alexander and Ashley Malenchak '08 each won easily in three games.
In the No. 2 spot, co-captain Becca Loucks '08 won her match in four games, winning the first and final games with a score of 9-0.
At the No. 5 spot, Conant beat her opponent in four games, winning the first two with scores of 9-1, dropping the third 9-3, and coming back strong in the last game to win 9-3.
Libbey Brown '10, No. 6, beat her opponent 3-1, splitting the first two games before rallying to clinch the third 10-8 and the fourth 9-4.
Maura Doherty '11, in the No. 8 spot, also won her match in four games, winning the final game with a close score of 10-8.
In the No. 4 spot, Madeline Lurio '09 beat her opponent in five games after dropping the first and fourth games.
In the final match against Harvard (5-4, 3-3 Ivy), the Big Green did not win a single game. A few of the women came close, however, particularly Loucks and Alexander, who each played games that ended in 10-8 scores.
"The match against Harvard was not as close as we had hoped, but all in all, it was a very exciting weekend and end to the season," Alexander said. "As our coaches reminded us after the match last night, we can learn from wins, but we can learn more from losses. The team will use what we learned this weekend to continue improve during the off season and throughout next year."
Power expressed similar sentiments about the team's matches against Harvard.
"We had hoped perhaps to do a little better, but one of their top players entered the line up, and so the whole order was bumped down. I think the players put a little too much pressure on themselves for the last game, and I think they would admit that they have played better."
Power went on to stress the success of the team throughout the season.
"[Our season] was terrific," Power said. "As it was shown at Championships, we did realistically as good as we could have done. Of all of the teams at our level, we were the best. To have good wins over Brown, Cornell, and Williams, and to have finished where we did was very impressive."
Malenchak, Loucks, Conant and Brown will travel this weekend to the CSA Individual Championships in Annapolis, MD.
These matches will determine individual rankings and have no bearing on the team's season record.
