Just missing final, Tigers take fourth

With its No. 1 player, junior Claire Rein-Weston, on the bench due to illness, and facing a team ranked No. 1 in the country, the women's squash team could have thrown in the towel and called it quits. Refusing to give in, though, the Tigers made Saturday a day to remember as they played Trinity in a 5-4 nail biter, but ended up losing to the Bantams on their way to a fourth-place finish in the Howe Cup — the national championship tournament — in Cambridge, Mass.

Having pulled off a dominating 7-2 victory against Penn the day before, Princeton went into Saturday hoping to rely on its depth to upset top-ranked Trinity to advance to the finals.

"After such a decisive loss last weekend, I was happy to see everyone playing better squash," head coach Gail Ramsay said.

The bottom half of the Tigers' lineup played superbly, as sophomores Margaret Kent and Carly Grabowski posted wins at Nos. 6 and 7 respectively, while freshmen No. 8 Aly Brady and No. 9 Maggie O'Toole also came away with victories.

"Our bottom players have been consistently strong throughout the season and this weekend was no exception," Ramsay said.

The Bantams, however, swept the matches at Nos. 1 through 5 and took the match, 5-4.

The result may have been different had junior No. 1 junior Claire Rein-Weston not fallen ill, forcing everyone in the lineup to move up one spot.

Trinity fell 5-4 to defending champion Yale in the finals.

Starting Strong

The Tigers got their momentum going early in the weekend, taking down fifth-ranked Penn 7-2 on Friday in the quarterfinal round.

During the first set of matches, Princeton took a 2-1 lead, thanks to junior No. 3 Ali Pearson and No. 9 Brady.

Pearson, who dominated the Quakers' Radhika Ahluwalia, cruised to a 3-0 victory, while Brady defeated Penn sophomore Elizabeth Kern 3-0.

The Tigers also took the second set of matches 2-1. Sophomores No. 5 Lena Neufeld and No. 8 Grabowski both managed to win their matches, 3-0, though both were extended to a pair of 10-point games.

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Princeton won all of the final three matches of the final set. The match between junior No. 4 Genevieve Lessard and Penn freshman Tara Chawla was the only one to last four games, with Lessard winning 3-1.

Battle for third

After losing to Trinity, Princeton took on Harvard — which lost to Yale in the second round — in a battle for third place.

Perhaps having spent all of their energy in the match with Trinity, the Tigers ended up taking fourth as the Crimson came out on top, 6-3.

Princeton's first victory came from No. 5 junior Marilla Hiltz who defeated Harvard's Audrey Duboc, 3-1.

No. 7 Grabowski experienced her first loss of the season in a close four games against Harvard senior Allison Fast.

After losing the first two games, 10-8 and 9-3, Grabowski took the third game, 9-5, pushing the match to a fourth game. Fast jumped to an 8-2 lead and Grabowski fought back to tie it 8-8, only for Fast to win, 10-8.

O'Toole shone again at No. 9, stumping Harvard sophomore Elizabeth Berylson, 3-0.

"The team proved this weekend that we are fierce competitors, especially given our shorthanded close call with Trinity," Grabowski said. "Every single one of us stepped up to a new level this weekend that we haven't seen yet this season. We are all very proud of the intensity we showed the top team in the nation."

The Tigers hope to improve upon their performance next season, as they will not be losing any starting players and will be welcoming three top junior players to the team in the class of 2010.