Northampton, MA — Today, the 2010 – 2011 Women’s College Squash Preseason Team rankings were released.
Harvard, last season’s national champion, remained the top team in the nation. Yale advanced two spots to number 2, Trinity remained at number 3, Princeton advanced to number 4, and Penn, which lost four of their top nine players from last season, moved to number 5. The schools in the top eight will battle all year for seedings going into the Women’s National Team Championships (Howe Cup).
Jockeying for position will occur throughout the rankings. The Kurtz Cup (teams ranked 9th – 16th) and the Walker Cup (teams ranked 17th – 24th) were filled with movement in the preseason rankings. With three players joining or returning from a semester abroad, Middlebury jumped three spots in the rankings to 11th. Columbia, which enters its first season as a varsity team, moved from 25th to 20th. The Lions have six first-year players, all with squash experience, joining the squad.
Twelve schools improved in the rankings from last season: Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, Middlebury, George Washington, Wesleyan, Franklin and Marshall, Columbia, Tufts, Conn College, Wellesley, and Haverford. The following schools dropped spots in the rankings: Penn, Williams, Bates, Mount Holyoke, Amherst, Colby, Vassar, William Smith, St. Lawrence, Georgetown, Boston College, and Virginia.
Preseason rankings were based heavily on the team questionnaires returned for the 2010 – 2011 Season Previews, which included information on graduating and incoming players, and offseason training opportunities. Select schools have already commenced their seasons. The results of these early matches were not factored into the preseason rankings.
Below are the 2010 – 2011 Women’s College Squash Association preseason team rankings. Listed after each school’s name is their final ranking from last season.
- Harvard University (1)
- Yale University (4)
- Trinity College (3)
- Princeton University (5)
- Pennsylvania, University of (Penn) (2)
- Stanford University (6)
- Cornell University (7)
- Dartmouth College (9)
- Williams College (8)
- Brown University (10)
- Middlebury College (14)
- Bates College (11)
- Mount Holyoke College (12)
- Amherst College (13)
- Hamilton College (15)
- George Washington University (17)
- Wesleyan University (19)
- Franklin and Marshall College (20)
- Colby College (16)
- Columbia University (25)
- Bowdoin College (21)
- Vassar College (18)
- Tufts University (26)
- Connecticut College (27)
- William Smith College (22)
- St. Lawrence University (23)
- Georgetown University (24)
- Northeastern University (28)
- Smith College (29)
- Wellesley College (33)
- Haverford College (32)
- Boston College (31)
- Virginia, University of (30)
- Rochester, University of (34)
- Notre Dame, University of (35)
- Drexel University (36)
Last season’s Emerging Teams, five-person squads at the Women’s National Team Championships (Howe Cup), will be ranked once they compete with nine players during the 2010 – 2011 regular season. By order of finish at last season’s championships, these schools include Vanderbilt University, the University of Vermont, the University of California Berkeley, and Johns Hopkins University.
