Ephs Open the Season 1-1 at Home

WILLIAMSTOWN, MA – Women's squash opened their season going 1-1 for the day with a loss to Columbia and a win over Mt. Holyoke. The Ephs took one match off of the Lions, falling 8-1, but did not drop a single game versus Mt. Holyoke in route to a 9-0 victory.

Williams started the day off at 4:30 pm against Columbia. The Ephs knew that they were facing a tough competitor, and this year's Lions lived up to the expectation. However, Williams rose to the occasion and managed to push their opponents to many close games, and even taking one match.

Playing the three-court system, Tafarii McKenzie (#9), Esther Baek (#6) and co-captain Nicole Feshbach (#3) were up first. McKenzie lost narrowly in three games while her fellow senior, Feshbach, also fell to her Columbia counterpart but in four games. Freshman Baek, playing in her first collegiate squash match, competed in a thrilling five-gamer. After losing the first game, Baek came back strong to take the next two. However, Columbia won the fourth and managed to finish the match off 17-15 in the fifth.

Next on court came three sophomores: Caroline Hogan (#8), Ananya Mahalingam-Dhingra (#5) and Hayley Parsons (#2). Hogan and Parsons followed in a similar fashion to the previous rounds, losing in close four game and three game matches, respectively. Mahalingam-Dhingra was the one Eph to secure a victory in the match. After taking a 2-1 lead in the match, her opponent came back to win the fourth and even the score at 2-2. The Ephs number 5 held her ground and came up with the point for Williams, taking the fifth game 11-8.

Last up were co-captain Lily Grant (#7), Charlotte Walsh (#4) and Nicole Friedman (#1). Grant and Walsh both fought hard but lost their matches 3-0. Friedman took a game off of her opponent, but eventually fell 3-1.

"We all played extremely well today against one of the league's top teams," commented co-captain Grant. "Everybody spent the preseason training hard and it definitely showed, as we were able to take many games and even a match off of some great players."

The Ephs were not done for the day though, with another match against Mt. Holyoke at 7 pm. However, Williams won the match 9-0 with each player defeating their opponent 3-0.

"I am very pleased with our performance today, we simply played great against Columbia," added head coach Zafi Levy. "We are still missing two players (who are abroad for the semester and will be back in January), but everybody played very well today. We could have won two more points against one of the best teams in the nation."

There is still more to come for the Ephs this weekend, who will take on Cornell in Williamstown on Saturday, November 21^st at 3 pm. Cornell finished last season as the 6^th ranked team in the country. While the women know this match will be a challenge, they certainly showed their potential versus Columbia and look to build off of their momentum tomorrow. 

Individual Results vs. Columbia:

Individual Scores vs. Mt. Holyoke: