The men’s and women’s squash teams faced Brown last night in the final leg of a three-game road trip against Ivy opponents.
The Eli men (12–1, 4–0 Ivy) and women (13–2, 3–1) both had open season on the Bears, scoring matching 7–2 wins. Both the Brown men (4–11, 0–4) and women (10–4, 0–4) sit at the bottom of the Ivy standings, while the Yale men are tied for first with Harvard and the Yale women are No. 3 behind Harvard and Penn.
“It was a good match,” Georgia Blatchford ’16 said. “We played well, and it was a nice way to get our confidence up.”
She added that the men’s and women’s coaches felt at ease experimenting with the ladder because Yale was facing a less experienced team.
The men and women both won the top seven spots and lost at the eighth and ninth.
“I played pretty well today,” TJ Dembinski ’17 said. “It was nice to get off the court in three games.”
Dembinski did not give up any games to his Brown opponent. He and fellow freshmen Kah Wah Cheong ’17 and Liam McClintock ’17 each have not lost to an Ivy League opponent thus far.
Blatchford said that the Bears’ ladder was consistent from top to bottom, which forced the Bulldogs to work hard, particularly in their matches at the bottom of the ladder.
Shihui Mao ’15 added that although Brown is not the strongest team, the midweek match could prove helpful to the Bulldogs.
“Brown isn’t one of our closest competitors but playing them after two hard matches over the weekend was good for us to strengthen our shots and become sharper,” Mao said.
Both Bulldog teams will close their regular seasons with two Ivy League games this weekend; they play Harvard in Yale’s home finale on Friday, then travel to Dartmouth on Sunday.
Maddie Tomlinson ’17, who lost at the eighth spot after a tough battle, agreed the match would be good preparation for the Elis as they head into the final weekend of their regular season.
“We gave it our all,” she said. “The Brown girls are not a bad team, so we had to be on our game, which made us focus.”
Tomlinson said this type of focus was what the team needed to demonstrate in order to come away with victories this weekend and win Ivies.
The Bulldogs said last night’s matches were crucial practice for Friday’s showdown against Harvard.
“The girls played smart and aggressively,” said captain Lilly Fast ’14. “It was a great opportunity for more match play before we face Harvard.”
Both the men’s and women’s squash teams lost at Harvard 7–2 when the archrivals faced off last season.