Ephs Defeat Drexel 6-3

WILLIAMSTOWN – Women's squash took down Drexel 6-3 on Saturday afternoon. The Ephs rallied from a 7-2 loss to Brown the previous evening and came back with an important victory over the Dragons.

The weekend began with Friday's 6 pm contest versus Brown. Coming in ranked number 11 to the Ephs number 12, the women knew it would be a close contest and were right in thinking so. The match featured five five-game matches, with unfortunately the Ephs only coming out victorious in one of those matches.

In the first round, the battle was already raging with two out of the three ending in five games. Ananya Mahalingam-Dhingra (#9) made a strong comeback after being down 2-0, but lost narrowly in the fifth 11-9. Co-captain Ellie O'Neill (#3) came through with one of the victories of the day with her five-game match win. O'Neill traded games with her opponent until winning the fifth 11-6. With a loss by number 6, Ellen Coombe, Brown was up 2-1 in the overall match score.

The second round of matches proved to be just as close as the first. Alyssa Ritchie (#8) started off strong, winning the first game, but ended up falling 3-1. Co-captain Caroline Sawin (#5) had a grueling five-game match. After winning the third game by a close 12-10 margin, Sawin was up 2-1 in the match. Her opponent proved too resilient, however, and came back to win the next two games and the match.

Hayley Parsons (#2) had one of the closest four-game matches possible with no game ending by a victory of more than three points. Parsons was able to outlast her opponent in the end and won 11-9 in the fourth to take the match 3-1. After the second round of matches, Brown was up 4-2, needing only one more victory to clinch the win.

That win came at the number 1 position, with two freshman going head to head. Nicole Friedman (#1) of Williams fell short and lost in three games. Brown had won the match, but two positions were still on court. Both Charlotte Walsh (#7) and Nicole Feshbach (#4) found themselves down 2-0 to start their respective matches. Walsh and Feshbach each fought hard to even the match scores at 2-2. Unfortunately they had similar endings with Walsh falling 11-9 in the fifth and Feshbach losing 11-8 in the final game.

"Although we could not pull through with a win against Brown, we still put up a good fight," commented O'Neill. "The 7-2 score does not reflect how close the match was: we lost 4 out of 5 five-game matches. Brown is a very good team and long time rival and we're all hoping to have the opportunity to play them again at nationals."

After a hard Friday evening match, Williams had little time to rest with Drexel coming to Williamstown for a noon Saturday match. The victory over the Dragons was pivotal and the Ephs first round of matches started the day off on a strong note.

O'Neill, Coombe and Mahalingam-Dhingra all came off court with wins for the women. O'Neill, playing in her last regular season match, defeated her opponent in four games and ended her college home career with a win. Coombe and Mahalingam-Dhingra both won decisively won in three games. The Ephs were up 3-0 after the first round of matches and successfully set a forceful tone for the rest of the contest.

Only needing two more wins to secure the match, the victory for Williams came on the second of matches with both Parsons and Ritchie coming away with victories. Ritchie won in three games while Parsons, playing extremely well over the weekend, won the last three games of her four-game match. Sawin had a tough battle at number 5, and narrowly lost 12-10 in the fifth.

Williams had won the match with five wins going into the third round, which relieved the pressure from numbers 7, 4 and 1. Walsh, playing at 9, won in three close games, while Friedman, at number 1, lost in three close games. Feshbach was the last on court and found herself down 2-0. In the same pattern as her Brown match the night before, Feshbach came back to even the match score at 2-2 but fell in the fifth. With two losses and one victory in the final round of matches, the Ephs came away with a 6-3 win over Drexel.

"It was great to have a decisive win over Drexel today," said Sawin. "The team came out strong, winning 6 of the first 7 matches, even after two tiring matches (Middlebury and Brown) earlier this week."

"I enjoyed watching the team play this weekend," added head coach Zafi Levy. "We were so close to beating Brown yesterday with four ladies losing in tight five-game matches. Today was a very strong performance as well against Drexel. Tomorrow will be another hard day against Amherst and Wesleyan. If we play as well as today and yesterday we will be in good shape for tomorrow's matches."

The women are not finished with their tough week of matches and have two more to play tomorrow. On Sunday, the Ephs will travel to Middletown, CT to play Wesleyan and Amherst in the annual Little Three competition. Williams has won this title 14 years in a row and look to make it 15 tomorrow.  

Inividual Results vs. Brown:

Individual Results vs. Drexel: