After playing three matches in two days, the women’s squash team faced No. 8 Dartmouth Sunday in what promised to be their toughest match of an exhausting weekend.
The Bulldogs, hosting a multitude of both men’s and women’s teams at the Brady Squash Center, had already defeated No. 9 Williams, 6-3, and No. 11 Bates, 9-0, Friday. Saturday, the Yale women dominated No. 5 Cornell, 8-1.
Despite Cornell’s high ranking, coaches and players said that it was the Dartmouth match that Yale (5-1, 3-0 Ivy) had spent the week preparing for.
“We had been building up for Dartmouth over the weekend,” captain Miriam Fishman ’02 said. “People went into [the match] a little harder.”
Although the Bulldogs routed the Big Green (5-2, 1-1) on the score sheet by the large margin of 8-1, Yale players said fatigue made the match very difficult.
“Everybody didn’t have their A-games,” Yale head coach Mark Talbott said.
Though the lone Eli to lose a match was No. 3 player Sarah Coleman ’05, who fell to Dartmouth freshman Kelly Sennatt 3-1, players had to resort to what Fishman called “scrappier squash” in order to get the win.
“We had a long weekend,” said Francis Ho ’05, who played in the No. 1 position for the Bulldogs. Despite hamstring tightness, Ho easily defeated Dartmouth’s Sarah West, the 16th-ranked player in the nation, 3-0. For her own part, Ho has risen to the ninth spot in the individual rankings.
Devon Dalzell ’04, Lauren Doline ’05, Gina Wilkinson ’03, Katharine Sands ’02, Lindsay Schroll ’05, Abigail McDonough ’04 and Abigail Epstein ’05 rounded out the Bulldog’s scoring nine.
Talbott said that he did not expect the Williams match to be as competitive as it turned out.
“They played really well,” he said of the Ephs.
In the Cornell match, Ho fell 3-0 to the No. 2 player in the nation, Olga Puigemont Sola.
“I knew it was going to be tough,” Ho said. “I’d say that right now I’m not quite [at her level] yet, but hopefully I will be.”
Next weekend, the Bulldogs will travel to Princeton for the Constable Invitational, where they will participate in an individual tournament. Talbott said Ho will compete in the first bracket with the top 16 players in the nation.
“There will be a lot of tough players, but it will be good to gain some experience and see where I am with those girls,” Ho said.
In addition, the tournament will provide an opportunity for Yale players to get comfortable on Princeton’s concrete courts, which Talbott said may give the No. 3 Tigers a slight advantage when they host the Bulldogs Feb. 2.
“Princeton’s our biggest match,” he said. “We have a shot from [players] one to 10 — everybody has to focus.”