Women's Squash loses 6-3 to Dartmouth

 After many months of training, our team has looked forward to this checkpoint at the end of the first period of the season: Dartmouth has historically been an exciting test of our progress as a program. Looking forward to this match, our team trained hard this week with the goal of keeping up with our opponents, whom we knew we would have to really fight to have close matches with. Starting off were Melissa Swann at number 9, Sarah Willwerth at number 6, and Julia Ward at number 3. All three players won their first games, which was an exciting start to the match. Melissa went on into a 5 game battle that she lost, but played beautifully and with heart that was incredibly inspiring to the rest of the team. Sarah Willwerth played hard but lost in 4. Julia Ward won in 4 in another battle, pulling ahead to victory once again by playing good, clean squash.  Next on court were Anna Nicholson at number 8, Co-captain Hayley Parsons at number 2, and Co-captain Ananya Mahalingam-Dinghra at number 4.  Anna lost in 3 despite long rallies and close second game that could have gone her way. Co-captain Hayley Parsons lost the first two games but came back to win in an exciting, beautifully fought 5 game match. Co-captain Ananya also went to 5 but lost despite persistence and grit. Abby Leblanc at number 7, Esther Baek at number 3, and Co-captain Nicole Friedman at number 1 stepped on court next. Abby lost in 3 due to her opponents crisp playing. Esther lost in 3 despite sticking with her opponent for most of the rallies. Co-captain Nicole won in 4 in a very athletic match against a very gritty opponent.

Overall, this match was disappointing but galvanizing. The women's squash team hopes to use this match as a learning experience so that we can fix the problems made apparent by our losses. Hopefully a well-earned break combined with some focused work during Winter Study will allow for our progress.

Quote from Co-Captain Ananya Mahalingam-Dinghra: "We faced one of our toughest opponents today in Drexel but I was extremely proud of how all the girls played. Every point was fought for and the scores go to show that next time we face Dartmouth, the match could turn in our favor. A big shoutout to Julia for two amazing wins this weekend, as well!"

Quote from Coach Blair Dils: "I think we've learned a lot about our strengths and weaknesses this weekend. We'll enjoy a few days off, get back to work next week and get fired up to get into the thick of our NESCAC schedule in January."