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.
