Trinity Women's Squash Set For Howe Cup At Yale This Weekend
by David Kingsley

February 24, 2016 - Hartford, Conn. - The Trinity College women’s squash team, which has an 11-4 record after closing the 2015-16 regular season with a tough 5-4 loss at Princeton on Saturday, will vie for a fourth national title in the College Squash Association (CSA) National Team Championship (Howe Cup) title this weekend at Yale University. The three-day event under a new format that features the top-16 teams in intercollegiate men's and women's squash competing on the same weekend at the same location, will take place from Friday, February 26 to Sunday, February 28. The Bantams, which earned their 10th-straight New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) crown earlier this month, are the No. 4 seed in the field and will open post-season play against the No. 5-seeded Yale University Bulldogs (11-4) on Friday, February 26 at noon.

The Bantams, coached by Wendy Bartlett (32nd season, 373-102), will face the winner of Friday’s match featuring top-seeded Harvard and No. 8-seeded Cornell in the CSA Semifinals on Saturday, February 27 at noon if they win against Yale, and the CSA Finals will take place on Sunday, February 15 at 11 a.m.  The Howe Cup consists of the top eight teams in intercollegiate squash in a three-round, single elimination tournament.  The other CSA Quarterfinal matches are No. 2-seeded Pennsylvania against No. 7-seeded Columbia, and No. 3-seeded Princeton against No. 6-seeded Stanford.  Trinity, which won at Yale, 8-1, on January 20, earned previous Howe Cup titles in 2002, 2003, and 2014.  The Bantams have appeared in the last three Howe Cup Finals, sandwiching losses to Harvard around the squad's 5-4 win over the Crimson in the 2014 finals at Princeton.

Trinity has a combined individual match record of 105-30 in its 15 matches this year, including wins over three of the eight teams in the tournament.  Senior co-captain Sachika Balvani (Mumbai, India) leads Trinity with a 14-1 individual mark, while senior co-captain Kanzy El Defrawy (Cairo, Egypt) is 13-1 at the top of the lineup, first-year Jennifer Haley (Caldicot, Wales) is 10-1, and sophomore Julia LeCoq (Creteil, France) is 12-2. Sophomores Raneem Sharaf (Gize, Egypt), Salma El Defrawy (Cairo, Egypt), and Karolina Holinkova (Krnov, Czech Republic) are all members of the Bantam starting lineup with a combined record of 31-9.  Junior Anna Kimberley (Colchester, England) is 8-2 this spring after spending the fall semester studying abroad and classmate Alexia Echeverria (San Salvador, El Salvador) is 25-5 in two seasons.