Yale Athletics
Despite renewed confidence after excellent play this past weekend against two higher-ranked teams, the No. 6 Yale women’s squash team suffered an 8–1 loss to No. 2 Trinity Wednesday night.
In their first home match of the regular season, the Bulldogs gave up eight games to their Connecticut rival, marking the third straight year they have fallen 8–1 to Trinity. The disappointment comes on the heels of a tight loss to No. 4 Princeton on Sunday, marking Yale’s second straight defeat after six consecutive wins.
“Trinity was definitely one of our toughest opponents this season, but we can’t wait to get another shot at them at the end of the season,” Alexis Lazor ’21 said. “We think we can definitely win some of the matches we lost yesterday and give them a run for their money.”
In the top two positions, Lucy Beecroft ’20 and Celine Yeap ’19 both fell to their opponents in three games. Although Yale’s No. 3 Helen Teegan ’21 won her third game 11–8 and tried to turn the tide in the match, she ultimately fell to Julia Le Coq in the fourth game 11–9.
Farther down the roster, multiple players had tight matches against their Bantam counterparts, including No. 4 Aishwarya Battacharya ’21 and No. 5 Jocelyn Lehman ’18. Although Lehman — who came away from Sunday’s match against Princeton with Yale’s lone win — lost in straight games to Trinity’s Lakeesha Rarere, all of those games were decided by four points or fewer.
“The bottom of the ladder did really well yesterday, but unfortunately we were outplayed,” Anika Bhargava ’21 said. “Still, it was a great match in terms of sportsmanship and experience.”
No. 7 Riya Mital ’21 put up a strong fight against Trinity’s Jennifer Haley, winning her first two matches 11–8 and 11–6. But she was unable to maintain her momentum and lost the three subsequent games 11–5, 11–9 and 11–7.
The Yalies’ sole win was earned by Emily Sherwood ’19 at the ninth position, who finished her match in three games. Sherwood has an excellent record against Trinity — in similar fashion to last night, Sherwood secured Yale’s only win against the Bantams during her first year on the team. Although she did not play against Princeton on Sunday after sustaining an injury, she returned to the court determined to show she was back to form.
“I’m so happy I was able to come out with a win because I recently injured myself and felt like I needed this for myself,” Sherwood said. “Overall, every girl tried her best, and the match showed that Yale squash won’t ever go down without a fight.”
No. 1 Harvard and No. 3 Stanford are the only teams ranked higher than Yale that the team has left to face, with Stanford coming to New Haven to play the Elis this Sunday. Multiple team members believe the match will be close and are optimistic for a win. In the next two weeks, Yale will face its four remaining Ancient Eight rivals before the CSA Championships in Cambridge on Feb. 15.
“Even though we lost, I think we all have positives to take out of the match that we’ll definitely look to take into the weekend’s matches, which are very important for us,” Beecroft said. “We are still very confident we can finish this season well and hopefully can pull off a few more surprises.”
The Bulldogs will face off against George Washington at the Brady Squash Center at 1 p.m. this Saturday.
Alex Reedy | alex.reedy@yale.edu