With aspirations of a national championship, the Cornell women’s squash team had high hopes as it participated in the Howe Cup at Yale University. However, the Princeton Tigers dealt a crippling blow to the Big Red, defeating Cornell, 7-2, in the first round of the tourney.
Cornell fell behind early, as its top five seeds lost. Julia Beaver and Meredith Quick of Princeton stunned top-seeded ranked junior Olga Puigdemont-Sola.
Princeton continued its dominant performance, as Annie Rein-Weston defeated senior Kate Lytle by a 3-1 margin. Needing just one more victory with the score 4-0, A. Minkowski defused any chances of a Cornell comeback with a convincing 3-0 victory over junior Melinda Lee.
In the sixth match of the day, sixth-seeded senior Megan Schwartz finally broke through for the Big Red, as she defeated Courtenay Green 3-1. Also winning on the day for the Cornell, the eight-seed freshman Lisa Marz squeaked by Lauren Martin with a 3-2 decision.
With the loss on Friday, Cornell could have easily folded. However, the resilient group rebounded on Saturday with a solid effort in the second round of the Howe Cup. Having lost the night before, the Big Red focused its efforts on crushing Brown.
Unlike the evening before, the top seeds for the Big Red performed exceptionally well. Top-seeded Puigdemont-Sola handily defeated Avery Broadbent in straight sets, 3-0. Following in line, second seeded Heckscher had little trouble in her match, as she cruised to a 3-1 victory. Cornell also won the next four matches as McNeely, Lytle, Lee, and Schwartz each won their matches in dominant fashion.
Brown avoided the shutout however, as it captured the final three matches. Alicia Ringel, Alison Roche, and Laurel Ried of Brown each won their matches by 3-0 margins, producing the final score 6-3 in favor of Cornell.
The Red competed in the third round of the Howe Cup yesterday but results were not available. See tomorrow’s edition of The Sun for complete results.
On the men’s side, the Red played two matches over the weekend, defeating both Hobart and St. Lawrence by the score of 9-0.
It was the last home weekend of matches for seniors Rajat Khanna, Oreste McClung and Aron Goetzl. All three were victorous on the weekend.
Archived article by Alex Ip