W. squash falls to Yale, Dartmouth in Howe Cup

Final exams came early for the women's squash team as it traveled to New Haven this weekend to determine the national champion at the Howe Cup and to show whether it had learned enough this season to pass the test as a team.

Princeton was pitted against Yale in the first round on Friday, losing 9-0. This loss was not unforeseen or even surprising. Yale went on to claim second place this weekend, losing only to Trinity in the final round.

Freshman Ruchika Kumar was the only Tiger player to come close to taking a win against Yale freshman Michelle Qui-bell.

"I won the first two games on sheer patience," Kumar said. "She [Qui-bell] was expecting me to go for winners and try to end the points early."

Kumar won her first two matches, 9-7, 9-5. Quibell, however, managed to take the next three wins, 9-5, 10-8, 9-1, to win the match and ensure Yale's dominating victory.

It almost looked like Princeton might get the win in the fourth game when Kumar was up 7-1, but Quibell managed to pull it together with the support of the Yale crowd to win it 10-8.

Head coach Gail Ramsay used this match as an opportunity to whet several of the younger Tigers' appetites and give sophomore Frances Comey, who has been suffering from back injuries, a rest in order to be in top form for the next day's match.

The Tigers' next opponents were the Williams Ephs. Princeton suffered a tough 4-5 loss to them earlier this season and were very eager to take them on again. This time, the Tigers included Comey in their arsenal at No. 5.

'Nervous'

"We were definitely nervous going into the match," sophomore Franny McKay said. "We knew that we could beat them, but if everyone wasn't playing their best we could also lose quite easily like a few weeks ago."

Princeton, however, stepped up to earn a 5-4 win that pushed the Tigers into the third round to decide fifth place. The win also proved to be a symbol of the Tigers' progress over the season as they took back the win the Ephs had taken from them earlier in the regular season.

"It felt good to beat Williams," Comey said.

But despite riding high from their victory over Williams and already having beaten their next opponent, Dartmouth, just one week earlier in Jadwin, the Tigers dropped a 5-4 decision to the Big Green to pick up fifth place.

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Princeton's top positions did well, with four of the top five winning their matches. No. 1 Kumar and sophomore No. 2 Patricia Gadsden won their matches, 3-0, while sophomore No. 4 Annie Warner and No. 5 Comey took their matches into the fifth games before closing them out. Both were down 2-1, but rallied back to take the next two and the wins. No. 3 McKay won the first and third games but couldn't hold on, eventually losing her match in the fifth game.

The Tigers' bottom four, however, could not pull out a win against Dartmouth.

"We wanted to leave everything we had on the court," Comey said. "We gave it our all. Unfortunately, we came up short."

When the weekend was done, Trinity, Yale, Harvard, U-Penn, Dartmouth, Princeton, Williams and Brown finished in that order. Despite coming up short in this year's national championships, the Tigers refuse to look back in regret on their efforts for the year. Instead, they are concentrating on what needs to be done to achieve their goals for next season. The Tigers are undeterred in their hopes for next year.

"The past season was an experience-building transition year," Warner said. "We look forward to smashing them [the other teams and Dartmouth in particular] next year with some strong incoming freshmen."

With five new recruits expected to join women's squash in Princeton's class of '07, the Tigers are very excited about heir chances for next season.