This past weekend the women’s squash club became the first women’s squash team to represent UR at women’s team nationals.
The women travelled to Yale University to participate in the Women’s Intercollegiate Squash Association’s Howe Cup. The Howe Cup is the national tournament which marks the end of women’s squash team competition.
In the inaugural season of the women’s squash club the team finished 29 in the national WISA rankings. As one of two new women’s teams the UR women along with the women from George Washington University received a special introduction at the Howe Cup banquet.
At Yale the women lost three tough matches by a score of 9-0 to GWU, Smith College and Franklin and Marshall College. “Those teams have just played longer than us. We played some pretty amazing girls,” junior Andrea Murphy said.
However, UR rebounded in their final Howe Cup match losing a close contest with Stanford University. The women lost 6-3, but clearly saved their best squash of the weekend for last. Sophomore Tracy Castillo and freshmen Natalia Lee and Leo Kim notched the Yellowjackets’ three victories.
“Despite losing all our matches, it was a great experience,” Murphy said. “For the first time we had the opportunity to watch some really elite women play the game, and that was the best part of the experience.” With a new found motivation and sense of the game the women should improve in their second season.
Fitzsimmons can be reached at afitzsimmons@campustimes.org.
