Women’s Squash Suffers Tough Loss To Harvard

Mateo Vazquez ’21
Sports Editor

Those who were on campus can attest that Trinity had an exhilarating weekend for squash. Trinity College had the opportunity to host the CSA National team tournament which also is referred to as the Howe Cup. This tournament is the largest women’s tournament that is run by US Squash.

The tournament started off with a very intense match against the University of Pennsylvania.  They have been rising in the squash ranks for some time now. This year their record has been (9-5 overall, and 3-4 Ivy, and in the weeks prior to facing Trinity they were able to beat Columbia, which was the ranked no. 7 coming into the Howe Cup. Overall, Trinity dominated the match., winning all but one with clean sweeps. Specifically, one match that stood out was junior Lakeesha Rarere, who had a clean sweep for all three of her matches. Her last match was especially impressive where she was able to shut out Penn in that match at 11-0. This nonetheless set the momentum coming into the tournament and prepared them for a hard match against Princeton on Saturday.

On Saturday, however, it seemed that the Bantams were off to a shaky start. They unfortunately lost the first two games of the day to Princeton. The Bantams began to rally and were on a hot streak. They quickly changed the pace of the game. One of the games that went into five matches was eventually won by  Salma Alam El Din ’20. The Bantams continued to have some tough moments across all matches, but were able to secure a 7-2 win over Princeton.

On Sunday, the Bantams had made it to the finals of the Howe Cup and seemed as if they were going to win. The only team that they had to face was Harvard, which is the number one seated women’s squash team and has had a successful and undefeated past season, as well as being the previous national team champions. Unfortunately, the Bantams could not keep the momentum from the tournament’s previous wins and lost to Harvard 9-0. Harvard was not only able to finish the season undefeated, but also were able to capture their fifth consecutive national title from the Bantams. However, the Bantams have come a long way in the current season and won numerous tough matches despite high odds. This year they will finish the season in second place for nationals.