Tufts finishes regular season with victory over Conn. College

The women’s squash team had mixed results against a pair of conference opponents this past weekend in its final two matches before this weekend's NESCAC tournament. While Tufts lost 8-1 against Colby at Harvard on Saturday, the team bounced back the next day to beat Conn. College 6-3. With the victory against Conn. College, the squad ended its regular season with a record of 5-11.

Despite losing by a wide margin on Saturday, the Jumbos were able to look past the loss and deliver a good overall performance on Sunday.

“This weekend was definitely a challenge for the team," Junior Paget Stanco told the Daily in an email. "We had a solid match on Saturday despite the final results against Colby, so Sunday was something every [athlete was] looking forward too."

Stanco defeated her opponent, 10-12, 11-6, 11-8, 11-8 in the first position and senior tri-captain Paige Dahlman, playing the second position, handily beat her opponent in three sets, 11-9, 11-7, 11-7. First-year Lauren Banner beat the Camels' first-year Nina Nalle in the fifth position, 11-7, 11-6, 11-5, while sophomore Anna Bezahler also had little trouble handling her opponent in three games, 11-1, 11-3, 11-4.

Further down in the lineup, sophomore Lynn Cheng came out on top in a comeback win in four sets at the seventh position by scores of 6-11, 11-1, 11-7, 11-7. In the eighth position, first-year Gabi Salomon was victorious against her opponent, taking all three sets by an 11-7 score.

Against Colby, first-year Claudia Udolf was the only Jumbo to pull off a victory, finishing her opponent in just three games, 11-4, 11-2, 11-7. The Jumbos had some close matches, though, including those of Dahlman and Banner, who both went to four games. Senior tri-captain Ann Bellinger's five-game nail biter ended in a loss (11-0, 4-11, 11-4, 6-11, 11-3), with Bellinger's opponent taking the fifth game.

“We had a fantastic match against Colby this past Saturday, even if the end match score did not show that," Dahlman said in an email to the Daily. "Although we lost 1-8, some matches were extremely close and could have gone in our favor. [Junior tri-captain] Stanco’s last two games were exceptionally close, Ann Bellinger played a five-game match, and Lauren Banner also had a long match that ended 10-12 in the fourth. The highlight of that match was probably Claudia Udolf who killed her opponent in three games.”

Dahlman did not see the final score as indicative of the small talent gap between the two teams.

“On another day, the end match score could have been reversed," Dahlman said. "Colby is a good team that is right at our level. As a result, the winner of our matchup will be the team that can stay focused the longest and play to their opponent’s weaknesses while capitalizing on their own strengths. Unfortunately, Colby was able to perform slightly better than we could -- and this time, the match score showed that. Nonetheless, we’ll be ready for them the next time we play.”

Tufts will have little time to worry about this past weekend's results; with the championship season now in clear view, the team has bigger goals to reach. The Jumbos will head to Williamstown, Mass. today to compete in the NESCAC tournament hosted by the Williams Ephs, with their first match this afternoon at 4 p.m. against the Bowdoin Polar Bears.

Tufts enters the tournament as the tenth seed. It is the third year in a row that the Jumbos will take on the Polar Bears in the first round, and a win would put the team in the quarterfinals for the first time since 2009.