Princeton, NJ — The final morning of the Women’s National Team Championships has already seen some great squash.
The action began at 8:30 AM at Princeton’s Jadwin Gymnasium with the B, C, and D Division consolation finals. All three consolation finals were close. In the B consolation, perennial rivals Bates and Mount Holyoke battled back and forth, with Bates coming out on top of the 5-4 win. The Wesleyan-Bowdoin C Division consolation came down to the fifth game of the final match, and Wesleyan clinched the 5-4 win. Smith and Wellesley have gone back and forth all season, and the Seven Sisters rivals met yet again in the D Division consolations. In 6-3 decision, Smith won to end the season series with a 3-1 advantage.
Cal and Johns Hopkins won their respective round robins to make it to the E Division finals. Both schools were in the Emerging Teams Division last season, and to make it to championships with full nine-player teams was in itself an accomplishment. Cal finished the weekend with a perfect 4-0 record, winning the E Division.
Georgetown came into the Women’s National Team Championships seeded seventh, and they upset St. Lawrence and Smith to make it Epps Cup (D Division) finals against top-seeded Connecticut College. Despite a strong effort from the Camels, Georgetown pulled off their third upset of the weekend to win the D Division.
Franklin & Marshall and Hamilton, the top two seeds in the C Division, met in the Walker Cup finals. When the teams met in the regular season, it was an incredibly close match, and today was no different. F&M ultimately prevailed in a 5-4 match that was characterized by energetic play and good sportsmanship on both sides.
Brown and Williams met in the Kurtz Cup (B Division) finals. Brown was the top seed coming into the division, and the Bears had defeated Bates in the semifinals. In Williams’ semifinal match, sophomore Alli Rubin came back from being down 1-9 in the fifth game to win 11-9 over Mount Holyoke captain Shara Robertson, helping the Ephs to a 6-3 win. In the finals, the two teams traded matches back and forth until Brown pulled away to win 6-3.
Congratulations to all the teams who competed this weekend!
