Entering last week’s NESCAC Tournament, the women’s squash team knew they had a tough match to start off the weekend. The women had played tough against Middlebury College earlier this season and had managed to pull out a hard-fought win. Heading into Friday night’s match, however, they were under pressure to maintain their spot just ahead of the Panthers.
At first, the match appeared to be a close one, with the Amherst women fighting for every game. One reason may have been the Trinity College courts: they hardly resembled those that smelled of rich mahogany at the Davenport Squash Center at Amherst. Aside from the comparatively utilitarian appearance of Trinity’s facility, their courts are much hotter and are made of a different surface than the ones at Amherst, which affects the ball in a different way than the Jeffs are used to.
The top of the ladder even had to contend with very unique glass courts that required a white ball, causing some players to see the ball a bit later than usual. Melissa Moulton ’09 lost her first game against Middlebury, needing some time to adjust to the new conditions. She went on to handily win the next three games. Hayley Milbourn ’11 had a solid win at the two spot, defeating the younger sister of last year’s Amherst women’s squash co-captain Caroline Shannon ’07. Allie Dalglish ’11 had a tough match against her arch-nemesis, Sarah Hatfield. Despite facing tough competition on unfamiliar territory, the Jeffs managed to win 5-4.
Next in line to take on the Jeffs was the host team, Trinity, famous—at least in the squash world—as a powerhouse. Despite the relatively harsh 0-9 loss, Mimi Bell ’11 managed to get a game off her opponent, an impressive feat against such a reputable team.
The women’s next match against Hamilton College was tough for the Jeffs. Co-captain Libby Martin ’08 broke her opponent’s heart in a close second game, and silenced her in the third with authority, 9-0. Milbourn also managed to pull out a victory in four games. The middle of the ladder had the best shot to make it five, and a win, for Amherst. The matches for the fourth, fifth and sixth spots all went to four games, but Hamilton was able to pull it out and sent the Jeffs into the match for seventh place, their final opportunity to improve their ranking on the weekend.
Having just seen the Amherst men finish off Tufts University, the women now had their turn to take on the Jumbos, who began the weekend seeded two spots ahead of the Jeffs. Dalglish, Milbourn, Moulton and Bell managed to pull out their matches for the Jeffs, bringing the overall match score to 4-4, and Martin was left to decide the match. Despite finding herself in a 1-2 hole, she came back to win in five games, delivering the victory and the sought-after seventh place. “Everyone contributed to the victory,” a humble Martin said.
Overall, the women had a tough weekend. But the grit they were forced to show merely made the weekend sweeter. As Martin put it, “This weekend was challenging and probably one of our most successful of the entire season.”