Trinity Women's Squash Heads To Princeton Seeking Third Howe Cup Crown by David Kingsley February 20, 2014 - Hartford, Conn.
- The Trinity College women’s squash team, which finished the 2013-14
regular season with its best dual-match record since 2003 at 13-1,
including three victories the first weekend in February to capture its
eighth consecutive New England Small College Athletic Conference
(NESCAC) title, will be the No. 2 seed at the College Squash
Association (CSA) Team Championships (Howe Cup) this weekend at
Princeton University. The 2013 Howe Cup Runners-Up, the Bantams will
open play against the No. 7-seeded Stanford University Cardinal in the
quarterfinal round on Friday, February 21 at 12:15 p.m., with the
winner advancing to the semifinals the next day at 2 p.m., and the
finals scheduled for Sunday, February 23 at 1 p.m.
The Howe Cup consists
of the top eight teams in intercollegiate squash in a three-round,
single elimination tournament. Trinity, coached by Wendy Bartlett (30th
season), has been to the Howe Cup Finals five times and won the
national title in 2002 and 2003. The Bantams finished second last
winter as the No. 5 seed with wins over No. 4-seeded Yale in the
quarterfinals and No. 3-seeded Princeton in the semifinals, before
falling, 5-4 against Harvard in the finals. Two-time defending champion
Harvard is the tournament’s No. 1 seed, while Pennsylvania is No. 3,
and Yale is No. 4. Trinity blanked Stanford, 9-0, at Yale, won at
Yale, 5-4, and defeated Penn, 6-3, at home over an eight-day stretch in
mid- January, but suffered a 5-4 setback against Harvard in Hartford on
February 4.
Trinity has a combined
individual dual match record of 112-14 in its 14 matches this
year. One of just three finalists for the prestigious Richey
Award this winter, senior co-captain Catalina Pelaez (Bogota, Colombia)
has been stellar at the No. 2 spot in the lineup in her final season
with a 12-0 record, while first-years Anna Kimberley (Essex, England)
and Alexia Echeverria (San Salvador, El Salvador) are flawless in 23
individual matches between them.
Bantam senior Jennifer
Pelletier (Richmond Hill, Ontario) is 11-1, while classmate Wee Nee Low
(Penang, Malaysia) is 8-1, and sophomore Sachika Balvani (Mumbai,
India) is 11-2 this season. Juniors Natalie Babjukova (Prague,
Czech Republic) and Ashley Tidman (Lamor-Plage, France) are both 10-2,
while junior Chanel Erasmus (Capetown, South Africa) is 9-4, and
sophomore Kanzy El Defrawy (Cairo, Egypt), the 2013 CSA National
Singles Runner-Up, has five wins and just two losses at the top spot in
the Trinity lineup.
