Trinity Women Ranked No 4 In The Nation Entering Opening Weekend
by David Kingsley
Hartford, Conn., November 15, 2011 - The Trinity College women’s squash program welcomes back six starters from last year’s squad that posted a 14-4 overall record and won its fifth straight New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Championship title last winter. The 2010-11 Bantams reached the College Squash Association (CSA) National Team Championship Tournament (Howe Cup) Semifinals and finished ranked No. 4 nationally. The two-time Howe Cup Champion Bantams, under the direction of Head Coach Wendy Bartlett (28th season), will once again contend for a national title led by senior co-captains Alicia Rodriguez (San Luis Potosi, Mexico) and Katie Wymard (Radnor, Pa.) and All-American sophomore Catalina Pelaez (Bogota, Colombia) at the top of the lineup. Ranked No. 4 in the CSA Pre-Season Poll, Trinity opens the 2011-12 campaign at Colby on Saturday, November 19 at 2 p.m. and will visit Bates and Bowdoin at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., respectively, the next day.
“The leadership and togetherness of this team has reached a level that I have not seen before,” says Bartlett. “The players worked hard on strength and conditioning in the off-season, and it was clear that each one of them was ready and in excellent shape when we started on November 1. It should be an open race among five teams for the national title once again, and we are determined to give our best effort.”
Pelaez gives Trinity one of the nation’s top collegians in the No. 1 spot, after earning a 14-3 record and reaching the CSA Singles Quarterfinals last season. Classmate Jennifer Pelletier (Richmond Hill, Ontario) was also a CSA All-American as a rookie with a 12-5 mark a year ago, and sophomore Wee Nee Low (Penang, Malaysia) was an impressive 9-2 after joining the squad in January. Rodriguez, who is 34-7 in her career including a 15-3 mark in 2010-11, is competing with Pelletier and Low for the No. 2 position, while top first-year prospects Natalie Babjukova (Prague, Czech Republic) and Ashley Tidman (Larmor-Plage, France) should round out the top six in an undetermined order entering the season’s opening weekend.
Competition is equally intense for the bottom third of the lineup, as Wymard, fellow seniors Andrea Echeverria (San Salvador, El Salvador) and Pamela Jimenez (Puerto Vallarta Mexico) vie with younger players for varsity spots. Wymard has not lost in 14 career varsity matches, while Echeverria is 28-9 in her career with a 12-5 mark in 2010-11, and Jimenez is 19-6 in three years and has been an All-NESCAC honoree. Sophomore Melva Lopez (Bogota, Colombia) showed promise as a rookie last winter, and rookie Whitney Hartmeyer (Locust Valley, N.Y.) has been impressive in pre-season. Junior Robyn Hodgson (Aberdeen, Scotland), who is 17-11 over the last two seasons, will be a factor when she returns in the spring from a semester abroad in January. Sophomore Lindsay McDonough (Washington, D.C.) provides quality depth.
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