The Jeffs squashed their opponents, the St. Lawrence University Saints, in the opening round. Amherst served out its competition without giving up any matches to tally a score of 9-0. Senior captain Melissa Moulton dropped a third game in her individual matchup as the Jeffs’ No. 6 player but pulled through with solid squash in the fourth game to win (9-4, 9-4, 5-9, 9-2).
In the next round, Amherst had to face the Wesleyan Cardinals. The Jeffs had topped the Cardinals 7-2 in their last meeting just last week at the Little Three Championships. Although Wesleyan gained an edge of one more match, Amherst eventually ended up with a comfortable 6-3 victory to beat the Cardinals for the second time this season.
Sophomore Caitlin Demkin ran her opponent, Keera Bhandari of Wesleyan, around the court. Demkin forced Bhandari to earn every point and lost each of her games with narrow margins (9-5, 9-7, 9-6). Fellow sophomore Amelia Bell had a strong first game but struggled in the last two to lose her match in the No. 7 spot (9-7, 9-0, 9-2). Last but not least in the Jeffs’ lineup, Veronica Roca ’11 kept her match competitive but suffered a loss with final scores of 2-9, 5-9 and 1-9.
Despite the trio of losses, Amherst advanced past Wesleyan into the final round of the division tournament. The 6-3 win in the second round gave the Jeffs the added confidence that they needed going into the finals, since their last match against Tufts had resulted in a 5-4 win. And despite the pressure, the Jeffs were also excited at the prospect of becoming division winners.
“We were really pumped going into the finals of the Walker Cup — we wanted to win, and we were particularly excited to have the opportunity to destroy Tufts,” said Moulton.
In the finals, sophomore standouts Allie Dalglish and Hayley Milbourn led the squad to a convincing 7-2 win over the Jumbos. The Jeffs lost two tough matches to their NESCAC rival. Kate Savage ’12 fought a grueling five-game match against Val Koo of Tufts. Savage was ahead by two games when Koo launched a comeback that proved too difficult to fend off. Keeping the score dangerously close at 7-9 until the end, Savage lost her match with a score of 9-3, 9-3, 1-9, 7-9, 7-9.
First-year Anna Scheidt, recently recovered from an ankle injury, also had a tough loss in the No. 4 position. Although down by two games, Scheidt managed to win the third game 9-5 but could not hold off Mercedes Barba of Tufts for the final and fourth game.
In spite of the double individual losses, the Jeffs improved upon their record against the Jumbos by finishing the final round 7-2 compared to last week’s 5-4 win in the NESCAC tournament. Having won those extra matches, the Jeffs had some breathing room and felt less pressured as a result.
“Luckily this weekend we had a cushion in every match. We won 9-0, 6-3 and 7-2. You start to get nervous when you have 5-4 matches, but we won every match this weekend very handily,” said Dalglish. “My match was the match that clinched the win for us against Wesleyan, and Caitlin Demkin’s was the match that clinched our championship victory. The 7-2 win against Tufts in the finals really proves what our team can accomplish, especially since we only had a narrow 5-4 win against them at NESCACs two weeks earlier.”
The women’s squash team concluded its season with an overall record of 16-10, a significant improvement from last year’s record of 12-14. As the lone graduating senior in the lineup, Moulton said of the team’s overall performance: “I’m so proud of the team! We’ve proved ourselves so dominant in the third division that I think we’ll move up to the second division next year.”
Dalglish also thought that given the Jeffs’ dominance in their division this season, they should look forward to competing with upper level teams next year. “Now that the season is over and we proved that we were absolutely the dominant power in the C Division, next year will be all about beating teams that escaped with narrow wins this year like GWU, Hamilton and Bowdoin. We are only losing one senior, so hopefully with some fresh incoming talent, we can move up a few more spots in the rankings and compete in the B division next year. Things can only improve and I am very optimistic.”