Ephs Fall to Cornell 9-0 in Home Opener

WILLIAMSTOWN, MA - Williams fell to Cornell 9-0 on Friday evening in their opening match of the aeason. The Ephs were faced with a tough challenge from the Bears, who have always been one of the top ranked teams in the nation.

Although Williams came in as the underdog, they fought hard and forced their opponents to fight hard for their wins. The freshmen on the team, three of whom started their college careers in the top 9, all put up a good fight, with Abby LeBlanc (#7) taking her opponent to five games and Sarah Willwerth (#6) and Julia Ward (#2) fighting extremely hard against difficult players. Other intense matches included Melissa Swann (#8), who managed to crush her opponent 11-1 after a 2-1 deficit, but eventually fell in the fourth game. Returners Anna Nicholson (#9) and Esther Baek (#5) both fought hard as well, with Baek managing to get a game off of her opponent but eventually losing 3-1. Senior captains Nicole Friedman (#1), Hayley Parsons (#3), and Ananya Mahalingam-Dhingra (#4) all took a game from their opponents but eventually also fell in four games. The exhibition match with senior Caroline Hogan (#10) was extremely close as well, with a nail-biting tie-breaker first game and Hogan taking the second but losing 3-1.

Assistant coach Blair Dils had this to say about the match: "It's hard to call a loss encouraging, but we had a number of players win a game or two, and that hasn't typically happened for us against Cornell. The veterans and first years showed a toughness that should serve us well going forward."

Co-captain Ananya Mahalingam-Dhingra agreed with his sentiments, saying, "The 9-0 score, although tough, wasn't a complete indication of how hard everyone fought today. The matches were much closer than we have historically had them be against Cornell and we will continue to use what we learned today moving forward into the weekend and our matches in December"

The Ephs will face Dickinson at 3pm tomorrow, followed by a NESCAC match against Hamilton on Sunday at noon.