The Big Green women's squash team journeyed down to Cambridge, Mass. over the weekend to compete in the College Squash Association Tournament. Dartmouth earned the No. 8 ranking in the nation over the course of the season, placing Dartmouth in the A Division, a group of the top eight teams in the country that competes for the Howe Cup. Dartmouth lost matches to Harvard University, Stanford University and the University of Pennsylvania all by a score of 9-0 to earn eighth place in the tournament.
The top bracket featured six Ivy League teams as well as Trinity College and Stanford University. Harvard, the host, was ranked No. 1, followed by Yale University, Princeton University, Penn, Trinity, Stanford, Cornell University and Dartmouth.
Coming out fresh in the opening round on Friday, the Crimson (16-0, 7-0 Ivy) swept the Big Green, 9-0. When the two faced each other in the first Ivy match of the season in late November, Dartmouth tallied one match against Harvard off of a three-game sweep by Katherine Nimmo '14. Three of the losses in this match were forced into fourth games, as Corey Shafer '13, Helena Darling '15 and Marian Lurio '15 all snagged a game.
This time out, Julia Watson '12 earned the most points against her opponent and had three close games. Harvard freshman Julianne Chu knocked out an 11-7 win in the first and 11-9 win in the second. Watson kept the third game even closer but Chu pulled out a 12-10 victory to take the No. 8 match.
Sarah Loucks '13 and Darling both went neck and neck with their opponents, dropping a game, 11-9, against senior Nirasha Guruge and freshman Megan Murray, respectively. Melina Turk '14 fought back in the second game of her match against freshman Haley Mendez but fell, 11-8.
Other first round action featured Trinity barely upsetting Penn, 5-4, with four matches going to four games. Yale swept Cornell, 9-0, but the score doesn't reflect the two five-game and four four-game battles. Princeton beat Stanford, 8-1, but the matchup similarly featured many close matches with two five-game thrills and three four-gamers.
Back out on the courts on Saturday, Dartmouth experienced another sweep, losing to Penn, 9-0. The same result occurred when the two met in mid-January, with three Big Green players, Turk, Darling and Nimmo, each playing four-game matches.
Loucks and Kensy Balch '14 both forced their matches to four games. The Quakers took the remaining seven matches in straight games.
Loucks edged out Penn junior Pia Trikha, 11-9, in the first game, but Trikha turned the match around and took the next three, 11-5, 11-6, 11-4. Balch forced her match to continue against junior Stephanie Vogel when she netted an 11-8 win in the key third game. Vogel curbed Balch's momentum by ending the match in the fourth, 11-4.
In the semifinal matches, Harvard rolled over Trinity, 9-0, and Yale ousted Princeton, 7-2. The other consolation semifinal came down to the wire, but Cornell upset Stanford, 5-4. The match featured three five-gamers, five four-gamers and only one three-game match.
Dartmouth faced No. 6 Stanford in the seventh place match, again losing, 9-0. Four of the matches went to five games, however, as Rebecca Lau '13, Oona Morris '15, Kensy Balch '14 and Watson put up good fights against their opponents.
Harvard defeated Yale in the finals on Sunday to win the Howe Cup. Last year, the same two teams faced each other and Yale snuck out the win, 5-4. This time, the Crimson crushed the Bulldogs, 8-1.
