After finishing second at the Ivy Scrimmages last weekend, the Yale women’s squash team is looking to capture a win in its first regular season match against Williams College on Friday at the Brady Squash Center.
When asked about the upcoming season and the match against Williams, team captain Alia Aziz ’10 expressed a level of excitement.
“It is my last chance to do something special,” she said. “We have been training really hard, and as a result we are much fitter and mentally tougher. The match against Williams will be a good warmup for us before we play Penn in December.”
The major challenge that Williams presents is its No. 1 player, Toby Eyre. She will be facing Yale’s Logan Greer ’11, who was nationally ranked No. 4 at the end of last season and earned First Team All-American.
Although Yale defeated Williams 9–0 last year, this year’s score could prove to be different considering the change in scoring systems. Women’s squash previously used the International scoring system, where individual games are played to nine points and the player can only obtain a point if she is serving. This season, college squash teams will be using the American point-a-rally scoring system. This change allows for points to be scored by the person who wins each rally, regardless of whether or not he or she served. Also, individual games are now played to 11 points.
“We can’t afford any careless mistakes because every single point counts,” Aziz said. “You can be up 8–4 and that is not a great lead. With the American system, there is no such thing as being up or down by too much.”
Despite the changes of the new scoring system, the Elis find themselves well prepared heading into the Williams match after last weekend’s efforts. Although the Bulldogs lost to Harvard during the scrimmages, they managed to beat both Cornell and Princeton by identical 7–2 scores. Beating Princeton, the defending National Champions, proved to be a major boost of confidence for the Bulldogs, according to Caroline Reigeluth ’11.
“We haven’t beat Princeton in the past four years, so it shows how much we have improved,” she said. “It also sets a good tone for the season.”
The match against Williams will begin at 6 p.m.