Women’s Squash 3-0

IAN MCDONALD ’20
STAFF WRITER
In the pre-season polls, the Trinity Women’s Squash team came in at No. 3 in the nation, only behind Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania. Needless to say, the expectations are high for the 2016-17 season.
In the opening match for the Bantams, they faced the No. 16 ranked Bates Bobcats and the No. 18 Bowdoin Polar Bears. The Bantams were led by Raneem Sharaf ’18 and Anna Kimberley ’17 in the No. 1 and 2 spots in the lineup. They set the tone for the rest of the day winning each game by six or more points. The Bantams only lost two of the nine matches leading to an impressive 7-2 victory over the Bobcats. Other highlights from the match included Vanessa Raj ’20 in the No. 4 spot allowing a mere five points in her victory over Eliza Dunham of Bates.
Trinity kept the momentum going against Bowdoin in their next match for the day. The Bantams only dropped one set in the entire match against the Polar Bears. Dominant performances were handed in by Jenny Haley ’19 and Julia LeCoq ’18. Haley only allowed a total of 12 points in her two victories on the day and LeCoq shut down Chloe Polikoff of Bowdoin, holding her scoreless in one of the games. Phoebe Carlisle ’17 had an impressive comeback victory; after dropping the first game 5-11, she came back to win three straight, 11-3, 11-9, 14-12.
To finish off the weekend, the Drexel Dragons, ranked No. 10, came to the Kellner Center to try and knock off the 2-0 Bantams. Trinity handled Drexel with relative ease, however, winning the match 8-1. Salma Alam El Din ’20 had the most electric performance allowing a measly six points in her match. This victory brought the Bantams to a 3-0 start to the season, with impressive victories all against top-20 teams in the country.
Later this week, they hope to keep the winning streak going, taking on No. 7 Columbia on Friday, No. 9 Dartmouth on Saturday, and No. 19 Colby on Sunday. The matches against Columbia and Colby will be hosted at the Kellner Center.