When the women's squash team headed to Yale University for the Howe Cup last weekend, they left with a 2-1 record for the weekend and an 11th place national ranking.
On Friday, the Jeffs downed 15th ranked Wellesley College, 8-1. Six Amherst competitors, including Susanna Burke '03, Roopali Agarwal '03 and Alexandra Gibbs '05, notched 3-0 shutouts against their opponents. The only loss of the night went to Mary Francis-Ford '02, who fell 3-1 in a tough match.
Saturday's match against the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) was a different story for the Jeffs. Although Amherst had edged UPenn 5-4 in an earlier-season matchup at the Williams Invitational, seventh-ranked UPenn, who was the tournament's eventual B-Division winner, pounded Amherst 7-2.
"They had some injuries on the team [at the Williams Invitational], so they didn't have their full ladder," said Emily Stark '04. "At Howe Cup we knew they were back to their full ladder and it was going to be a tough match."
The Jeffs did manage to pull out two impressive wins against the Quakers. Lindsay Snyder '02 and Mara Alcaly '05 defeated their opponents 3-0 and 3-2, respectively. Snyder and Alcaly were also the only two Jeffs to post wins in all three of their matches last weekend.
"Penn was a really good team, but we still played very well," said Stark.
Sunday's matchup against 12th-ranked St. Lawrence University gave Amherst a chance to both rebound from Saturday's loss and end the season with a win.
And triumph the Jeffs did, with a 6-3 shellacking of St. Lawrence. Burke, Ford, Snyder, Alcaly, Stark and Cara Coscarelli '02 all walked off the court victorious.
With the win, the Jeffs end their season at 13-8, a record the Jeffs are very proud of.
"It was a good season, there were high points and low points, like with any athetic team," said Stark.
"But overall it was a great season. Everyone improved a lot and it was fun to play squash with a great group of girls," she added.