NESCAC Championships Results: http://nescac.com/sports/squash/2014-15/championship_women/schedule
WILLIAMSTOWN – Women's squash defeated rival Middlebury 6-3 for a spot in Sunday's NESCAC Championships finals. After beating Bowdoin 9-0 earlier today, the Ephs were determined to continue their winning streak against other NESCAC teams and did just that against the Panthers later that day. Tomorrow, Williams will meet Trinity in the finals to battle for the NESCAC Championship.
Playing on their home courts, the women were confident yet prepared for a tough match they knew lay ahead. Just two weeks before, Williams traveled to Middlebury and came away with a nail-biting 5-4 victory, and Saturday's match proved to follow a similar trend.
First off court with a victory for the Ephs was Ananya Mahalingam-Dhingra (#9) who defeated her opponent in three games. Co-captain Ellie O'Neill (#3) and Ellen Coombe (#6) were not as successful for Williams. After dropping the first two games, O'Neill came back to even the match score at 2-2. However, her Middlebury adversary combated the attempted comeback and finished O'Neill 11-7 in the fifth. Coombe had a different story, but unfortunately for the Ephs, a similar result as O'Neill. The Williams sophomore was up 2-0, but her Midd opponent proved resilient and won the next three games to take the match 3-2.
With the first round finished, the women were down 2-1 in the overall match score. Soon after O'Neill and Coombe finished their matches, Alyssa Ritchie (#8) came through with a victory in one of the closest three game matches possible. Ritchie took the first 11-5, but needed a 17-15 win in the second game and a 12-10 ending in the third to finish her opponent off. With Ritchie's 3-0 triumph, the match score was now tied 2-2.
The next two matches kept the score even, with Williams coming out on top in one and Midd winning the other. Hayley Parsons (#2) took the first game, but lost the next three by slim margins, including the last game with a score of 14-12 which ended in Parsons' defeat. Co-captain Caroline Sawin (#5) came through for her team in one of her last home matches of her college career. After winning the first two games, Sawin dropped the third game 13-11. However, Sawin refused to let her opponent see a chance of winning the match and finished her off 11-8 in the fourth.
Tied at 3-3, whichever team won at least two out of the last three matches would win and advance to the finals of the NESCAC Championships. The first match went in favor for the Ephs with Charlotte Walsh (#7) taking down the Midd number 7 in four games. Walsh was up 2-0 in the match, lost the third game, but quickly rebounded and downed her opponent 11-4 in the fourth.
Williams now needed just a win from either Nicole Friedman (#1) or Nicole Feshbach (#4). Friedman and Feshbach had two opposite starts to their respective matches. Friedman took control right from the beginning, and Feshbach found herself down 2-0. The Eph number 1 won the first game and came through in a clutch second game, with a 15-13 victory. That game proved to be the turning point of the match with Friedman coasting to an 11-6 win in the third to take that match and get the fifth point needed for a Williams win.
Simultaneously, Feshbach had battled back from a 2-0 deficit with 11-9 and 11-8 victories in the third and fourth games to force a fifth. After Friedman had sealed the match, Feshbach made sure to end the day on a positive note and completed the comeback with an 11-8 win in the fifth game. Williams ended the last round of matches with 3 victories and beat Middlebury 6-3.
"This was a great win over Middlebury," commented co-captain Sawin. "Everyone fought hard through tough matches. It is always a goal of ours to advance to the finals of the NESCAC Championships and we accomplished that today."
Head coach Zafi Levy agreed with his co-captain. "I am really pleased with the performance today against Middlebury," said Levy. "I am especially pleased with the wins from Nicole Friedman (#1), who played fantastic today, and Caroline Sawin (#5) who had a huge win despite having an injured back. Going to the finals of NESCACs is a major goal of our team and I am thrilled that we achieved that goal this year!"
Williams was seeded second in the tournament and held their ground this weekend. The Ephs will face Trinity in the finals on Sunday, February 8th at 9 am. Trinity is looking to take their 9th consecutive NESCAC title this year and is the only NESCAC team that Williams has lost to this season.
INDIVIDUAL SCORES TO COME
