The womens squash team this past weekend earned the third spot in the D Division and a No. 27 national ranking, after Tufts beat William Smith College in the consolation round of the CSA Team Championships in Princeton, N.J.
I think we were hoping to come home with winning the D Division, but overall were happy that we stepped up and won our match on Sunday against William Smith, junior Ann Bellinger said.
Tufts defeated William Smith 5-4 to end their weekend on a high note. The success started at the top of the ladder, with sophomore No. 1 Paget Stanco dispatching her opponent with scores of 11-5, 11-6, 11-2. Junior Paige Dahlman continued her dominant season with a decisive victory in the No. 2 position. She also defeated her opponent in straight games, 11-3, 11-3, 11-6.
In the third position, Bellinger won in three tough games, grinding out scores of 11-8, 11-8, 14-12. The fourth Tufts win came from freshman Anna Bezahler, who cruised to a three game win at 11-8, 11-6, 11-4. Freshman Lynn Cheng won her match in the No. 5 position in three games as well, scoring 11-4, 11-6, 11-3 to seal the victory for Tufts.
In the No. 6 position, senior Caroline Howe pushed her match to four games but was unable to pick up the win against her Heron counterpart. Freshman Rowan Rice battled her opponent to a decisive fifth game, but came up short in her match, 11-8, 6-11, 11-5, 5-11, 11-5. Junior Charlotte Griffiths and sophomore Sophie Laing competed in the eighth and ninth positions, respectively, but were each unable to emerge victorious.
I think I am most proud of our team rebounding after losing on Saturday and not letting that get to [us] and still coming out strong on Sunday and winning, Bellinger said.
On Saturday afternoon, Tufts played the semifinals of the D Division against the University of Virginia, losing an incredibly close match by a score of 5-4.
In the No. 1 position, Stanco pulled out a victory in five games, 11-6, 13-11, 11-5, 12-10, 11-4. The Jumbos other three wins came from Bezahler, Cheng and Howe in the fourth, fifth and sixth positions.
In the No. 2 position, Dahlman lost a heartbreaking match that was decided in five games, 11-8, 4-11, 11-6, 10-12, 11-9. Bellinger was defeated in four games in the third position. Rice, Griffiths and Laing also lost to their Cavalier opponents in the seventh, eighth and ninth positions.
A lot of us showed that we improved individually which was really good, Cheng said.
For the Jumbos, the tournament presented a unique challenge, as the team does not generally venture out of the New England region.
I think the hardest thing was going in knowing that we were the top seed, but only knowing [a few] different teams in our division and what they looked like, Bellinger said. UVA was definitely a wild card for us [because] we had no idea what theyd be like. Since they are a club team, they do not get to play many teams out of state, so it is really hard to gauge what they are going to be like.
Tufts bookended its loss to UVA with its victory against Bucknell University, 7-2, in the D Division quarterfinals on Friday. The Jumbos won in their first seven positions to breeze past the Bisons.
Overall, the weekend was a microcosm of the season for the Jumbos, who have been up and down all year.
I think we played really well [and] tried our best, Cheng said. We could have won in our division, though, because we were seeded first.
The team championships were the last team competition for Tufts this year, but Stanco will get a chance to play for the Jumbos one last time this year when she participates in the CSA Individual Championships this weekend.
