Ephs Down Bobcats 5-4

WILLIAMSTOWN – Women's squash came out victorious over longtime rival Bates for the first time in two years. The Ephs held their ground at the Simon Squash Center and narrowly defeated the Bobcats 5-4. Sunday's match versus Bates was the first match where the Eph women's full roster was on display this season.

First up to play came Alyssa Ritchie (#9), Ellen Coombe (#6) and Nicole Feshbach (#3). Ritchie was quick off her court with a dominating 3-0 performance over her Bates adversary. The other two courts were a different story. After narrowly losing the first game 12-10, Coombe stormed back to take the second and third games. Her opponent proved resilient and grabbed the fourth game. The Eph sophomore was able to fend off the comeback to win the match 3-2.

On the third court, Feshbach started off slowly with her Bates opponent taking the first two games. Feshbach came back to take the next two to even the match score 2-2, but this time Bates fended off the comeback and defeated Feshbach 12-10 in the fifth. 

After the first round of matches, Williams was up 2-1 in the overall match score. Playing at number 8, freshman Ananya Mahalingam-Dhingra followed the tone Ritchie set on her court, defeating her opponent in three games. Again, the top court and middle court had tougher challenges and a long battle ahead. Co-captain Caroline Sawin (#5) had a close five-game loss against her opponent. Williams was now up 3-2 after the win by Mahalingam-Dhingra and the loss by Sawin.

The bottom court was moving more quickly than the top two courts and so right when Sawin got off court there were two other battles going on. Charlotte Walsh (#7) and Hayley Parsons (#2) were both in five-game thrillers. Walsh traded games with her opponent until the fifth when the Bates player prevailed 11-7 for the win. The score was now tied at 3-3.

Parsons, a freshman playing in her first big rivalry match, proved that she was more than up for the challenge. After dropping the first two games 15-13 and 11-8 against senior tri-captain Myriam Kelly of Bates, Parsons made a big statement taking the next two games to tie the match 2-2. The Eph freshman showed that she could handle the pressure against the experienced Bates player and narrowly defeated her opponent 11-9 in the fifth.

With Williams up 4-3 in the overall match score, the Ephs had two chances to clinch the victory: senior co-captain Ellie O'Neill (#4) and freshman Nicole Friedman (#1). O'Neill showed her poise and experience and was able to come off court with a 3-0 victory to close the match for the Ephs, who with O'Neill's win had 5 match wins. Friedman had a tough loss to a strong Bates number 1, and so the match ended 5-4 in favor for Williams.

"Today was our first big match of the season and we were very excited to pull through with a win," said O'Neill after the match. "It was an extremely close victory. Bates played very well and definitely gave us a run for our money. We have our fair share of competitive matches ahead of us, so we are looking to build on today by improving even more each day in practice. We're off to a strong start in the second half of the season, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how well we can do this year." 

Head coach Zafi Levy was also pleased overall with the women's win. "Strong performance from the ladies today," commented Levy. "We fought hard all weekend and won three important matches. I am pleased, but think we can definitely play better so we will continue to push hard in the weeks to come."

Levy referred to the women's 3-0 record for the weekend and the Ephs wins versus Bowdoin and Colby on Saturday. Williams made a strong push this week and are now riding a four-match win streak. The Ephs will travel to Lancaster, PA and Washington DC to take on Franklin & Marshall and George Washington next weekend. Both teams will pose challenges for the Ephs and are two of the most important matches of the season.

F&M will take place at 5 pm on Friday the 16^th and GW at 11 am on Saturday the 17^th. 

Individual Results: