Women's Squash Starts Season Undefeated

WILLIAMSTOWN, MA – Women's squash finished their weekend Sunday morning with a 9-0 victory over Tufts, completing an undefeated opening home weekend. The Ephs also took down Wellesley 9-0 and Mount Holyoke 7-2 on Saturday.

After starting the weekend off on a high note on Friday evening with their sweep of Hamilton, the women were excited to take the court again on Saturday for two more matches. Saturday's match versus Wellesley consisted of seven 3-0 victories for Williams. Junior Maria Pylypiv (#7) and sophomore Nicole Feshbach (#1) had more of a challenge, but both managed to defeat their Wellesley counterparts in four games, completing the Ephs 9-0 victory over Wellesley and their second sweep of as many opponents.

Saturday evening's match against Mount Holyoke posed more of challenge for the team overall. While positions five through nine all took care of their opponents in three short games, the top four positions faced a tough test. Co-captain Ellie O'Neill (#4) came out of the gate strong, taking down her opponent 11-6 in the first game. Wellesley's player came back though in the second game to even the match score at 1-1. O'Neill, however, was not fazed, came back and finished the match off in four games. Caroline Sawin (#3) and Nicole Feshbach (#2) both lost to their opponents in three close games. Co-captain Alyssa Northrop (#1) again showed her strong and consistent play with a close and exciting match in the last match of the day. After winning the first game, her opponent came back to tie the match at one all. Northrop did not let up though, and stormed back to take the last two games and won 3-1.

"It was the first time we had played Wellesley and we barely dropped any games, which bodes well for the season," commented Northrop.  "Mount Holyoke was a tough team, but we all rose to the challenge impressively."

The weekend finished on Sunday morning at 11 am against Tufts. The Ephs showed their strength and endurance by finishing out the weekend strong with a 9-0 victory. The highlight of the match was Sawin, playing at number 1, who after finding herself down 2-1, came back to win the match 3-2.

"After a physically challenging preseason, it was good to get on the court for our first matches," said Assistant Coach Blair Dills. "Even though we were favored in all of our matches, the girls went out and took care of business."

Williams will travel next weekend to Philadelphia, PA and Princeton, NJ where they will take on Penn, Stanford, Drexel and Princeton. 

Individual Scores vs. Wellesley:

Individual Scores vs. Mount Holyoke:

Individual Scores vs. Tufts: