Hiltz, Comey provide spark in w. squash's upset over Harvard

Women's squash now sits at No. 3 in the country, up from its No. 6 ranking last week, and everyone wants to know why.

A big part of it is the recent and unexpected win over Harvard. The Crimson women had won the Ivy League Championship three times in a row and seemed well on their way to a fourth, having not lost a conference match in three years.

Yale has been nipping at Harvard's heels recently, but it was not the Elis who defeated the Harvard women this weekend. That honor belongs to Princeton, but it went down to the wire.

With the Crimson leading, 4-3, the pressure was on the Tigers. If Harvard won either of the next two matches, it would win.

Freshman No. 5 Marilla Hiltz lost her first two games, 9-5 and 9-7, and junior No. 9 Francie Comey was also down, 2-1. It seemed that the Crimson would retain hold of their undefeated season.

But Comey, down 2-1 and dealing with nagging injuries, managed to pull together a remarkable comeback to win, 3-2.

"Marilla looked to me almost a hopeless situation [early in her match]," head coach Gail Ramsay said. "But in the third game she began to play a little better and get a little more confidence."

Hiltz, with everything on the line, came back to win the next three games and the match, 3-2.

In Comey and Hitlz's fifth games, Hiltz shut out her opponent and Comey held hers to just one point.

The dramatic 5-4 upset over Harvard was even more impressive because the team was without sophomore No. 1 Ruchika Kumar, who has left school and will not return for the rest of the season due to "personal reasons," according to Ramsay.

The Tigers had previously faced the Crimson in Ivy League scrimmages, which took place in early November. Princeton, though ranked No. 6 in the preseason, turned heads with a 5-4 upset of then-No. 2 Harvard, favorite to win the Ivy League Championship at the time.

But the Tigers were without their No. 1 player, who had provided one of the crucial wins in the previous match-up.

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"I have to give my team tremendous credit," Ramsay said. "For either wanting it so bad or improving so much."

Nos. 2, 4, 6 and 8 were the first to play, ending in a 2-2 deadlock. Freshman No. 6 Genevieve Lessard closed out her opponent, 3-0. Junior No. 8 Franny McKay defeated sophomore Stephanie Hendricks, 3-1, keeping the Tigers even with the Crimson.

Next, Nos. 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 played. Freshman No. 1 Claire Rein-Weston was overmatched against Louisa Hall and lost, 3-0, gaining only four points total for the match.

Senior No. 3 Annie Rein-Weston, Claire's sister, also lost her match, 3-1, while freshman No. 7 Anina Nolan, coming off a tough 3-2 win against Dartmouth the previous day, defeated her opponent, 3-0, cutting the Crimson lead to 4-3. If Harvard had won either of the next two matches, it would have won. It was then that Comey and Hiltz made their stands.

The Tigers recorded easy wins at Darmouth the previous day. The men swept the Big Green, 9-0, and the women closed out their opponents, 8-1. But after defeating No. 5 Dartmouth, the men could not continue their success against No. 3 Harvard, losing 7-2.

So with this loss, Saturday belonged solely to the women.

Next weekend both teams will travel to Hartford, Conn., to play three games in two days to finish up their seasons.