On Saturday at the Howe Cup tournament in New Haven, the Princeton women's squash team proved that their 5-4 victory over a younger, less experienced Harvard squad on February 4 was not just a fluke. The Tigers beat Harvard, 6-3, on neutral ground, cementing its imminent title as national champions.
Still, the three-game difference is deceiving. Crimson junior Mary Greenhill lost in a fifth game overset to second-seeded Mary Foulk, and Freshman Heather Sullivan lost, 15-13, in the fifth game to Margaret Van Orman. That's just three points away from the 5-4 score the first time the two squash powers met.
"Oh, we're definitely a 5-4 team. There's no doubt about it," Co-Captain Stephanie Clark said. "I played terribly this weekend. If I could have just won my match."
Clark's only loss in the Cup Competition--which included decisive Crimson wins over Trinity, Brown, Yale and Franklin & Marshall--was to Princeton's Mary Belknap, whom she had handily beaten just eight days earlier, providing Belknap with her first collegiate defeat ever.
"My mind wasn't in it this time. My body wasn't in it," Clark said. "I feel like I've let the team down."
Freshman Jordanna Fraiberg, who whopped her older and more experienced Tiger opponent Hope MacKay one week earlier, also fell this weekend.
Remaining losses went to Mary Greenhill, Brooke Bailey, Heather Sullivan and Polly Butler. The three Crimson victories went to Co-Captain Daphne Onderdonk, junior Carrie Cunningham and sophomore Vanya Desai. Despite a bout with nausea, a flu-fever and memories of a three-game loss to Tiger Jen Roos last week, Desai rallied to a beautiful three-game victory this time around.
"Everyone left last weekend and this weekend feeling we could have won the match," Piltch said, "but there are no 'what if's' in squash
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