Sophomore Laura Gemmell, who has yet to drop a single match in her collegiate career, hit the court after Guruge and Kingshott and faced off against Cornell freshman Jesse Pacheco in the No. 1 match.

Gemmell continued her string of three-game victories—she has yet to drop a game in regular season play—and defeated Pacheco, 11-3, 11-2, 11-4. It was the third loss for Pacheco, who thus far has seen action only in the No. 2 slot.

Mumanachit and junior Cece Cortes also took to the courts in the final round of play, and both women churned out 3-0 sweeps in the No. 4 and No. 7 positions, respectively.

“I think everyone was pretty happy with how she played,” Mumanachit said of her team’s performance.

Mashruwala agreed with her teammate’s assessment.

“The girls were very fired up,” she said. “We knew playing Cornell is always an important match...everyone played very good squash.”

Mashruwala, for her part, started off the match alongside senior Bethan Williams and junior June Tiong.

Mashruwala and Williams both blanked their opponents, 3-0, playing No. 3 and No. 9, respectively.

At No. 6, Tiong recovered from a first-frame loss to beat Big Red junior and co-captain Lauren Sachvie, 8-11, 11-2, 11-4, 11-7.

With the first half of the season over, the ladies now have over a month until their next match against Bates.

But the team is careful to stay motivated with tough matches looming in the second half of the season.

“We’re looking forward to the competition after New Year’s,” said Mumanachit. “Those will be the bigger matches and the true test of our capabilities.”

To that end, the squad is determined to stave off the pressure of recapturing last year’s national title.

“The most important thing is that we haven’t been thinking about last year at all,” Mashruwala said of this season’s success and the team’s future goals. “We started this season with a new slate...We’re looking at it one match at a time.”

—Staff writer Molly E. Kelly can be reached at mkelly@college.harvard.edu.