Princeton, NJ — There was high drama in Princeton on the first day of the 2014 Women’s National Team Championships.
A Division (Howe Cup): The Yale-Princeton match went down to the wire. The Bulldogs were seeded fourth coming into the tournament, but the fifth-seeded Tigers had home court advantage. The score was tied 4-all coming into the final match, the #7 contest between Lilly Fast of Yale and Alex Sawin of Princeton. Fast and Sawin, both senior captains, battled through five close games. Fast came out on top, and her 11-7 win in the fifth put Yale into the semifinals. The Bulldogs will face defending national champions Harvard tomorrow, and Trinity will take on Penn.
B Division (Kurtz Cup): Columbia, the top seed in the Kurtz Cup, marched into the semifinals with a 9-0 win over Hamilton. The Lions won all but one match by a score of 3-0. Brown secured a spot in the semis with a 7-2 win over Williams, and George Washington took down Middlebury 6-3 for a semifinal berth of their own. The Bears will play the Colonials tomorrow, and Columbia and Bates will square off.
C Division (Walker Cup): Earlier in the day, Amherst, Franklin & Marshall, Bowdoin, and St. Lawrence all advanced to the semifinals. Amherst will play Bowdoin tomorrow, and F&M will play St. Lawrence.
D Division (Epps Cup): The match-ups for tomorrow’s semifinals will be Tufts-Virginia and William Smith-Boston College.
E Division: The E Division opened with play-in matches as teams competed for spots in the main draw. The Rochester Yellowjackets proved they deserve a spot in the main draw with a convincing 9-0 win over Notre Dame. Washington University in St. Louis likewise locked down their place in the quarterfinals by defeating Northwestern 6-3. Haverford, NYU, Colgate, Smith, and Northeastern all had byes and will start their bids for the E title tomorrow. In the quarters, NYU will play Smith, Colgate will play Rochester, and Northeastern will play Rochester. Top-seeded Haverford will face either California or Minnesota; the California-Minnesota play-in match has been rescheduled due to travel delays.
