CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The Wesleyan women's squash team used a 5-4 upset victory over No. 18 nationally-ranked Stanford to claim seventh place in the Walker Cup (C Division) at the CSA National Team Championships held at Harvard. The Cardinals (9-8) were defeated by No. 17 Franklin & Marshall 8-1 and No. 20 St. Lawrence 9-0 in the first two matches of the tournament prior to their win over the Cardinal on Sunday.
In that Sunday morning matchup with Stanford, it was the bottom of the Wesleyan lineup that paved the way to victory as wins at #5, #6, #7 and #9, combined with a default win at #8, proved enough to win the match 5-4.
Aashni Parikh '22 took down Riya Saran 3-0 (11-3, 11-4, 11-4) at #7 while
Celia Penny '24 won her match at #9 in a clean 3-0 sweep (11-3, 11-6, 11-4).
More points for Wesleyan came from
Emma Smith '22 at #5, defeating Cathy Zhou 3-0 (11-7, 11-8, 14-12) while
Annie Roach '22 sealed the match with a 3-1 win (11-8, 6-11, 11-4, 11-6) at #6.
Carly Blue '22 added a win in an exhibition match at #10 over Chloe Pae (11-1, 11-6, 11-8).
This marked just the second victory in four all-time meetings against Stanford and the first Wesleyan win in the series since 2002.
Wesleyan opened the tournament with a first round matchup with Franklin & Marshall, which the Cardinals fell by a score of 8-1. Penny accounted for the lone point for the Cardinals at #9, defeating Iman Jaikishan 3-1 (11-4, 11-2, 8-11, 13-11). Parikh was the only other Cardinal to win a set in their respective match. Blue won in an exhibition by a 3-0 score (11-0, 11-3, 11-4) over Adina Rubenstein.
Saturday's matchup against the Saints was competitive in the #7, #8 and #9 positions as Parikh fell in a tightly-contested match at #7. Parikh won the opening set 11-6 before dropping the next two 11-4 and 13-11. Despite the consecutive losses, Parikh battled and came up with a 11-8 fourth set victory. The tiebreaker set went into extra points but Starnisha Ramsey proved too much in the end with a 12-10 victory to seal the win.
Sydney Kim '22 also battled in her match against Promise Butler at #8 as Kim lost the first two sets, won the third by a score of 11-9, and saw Butler win by the same set scoreline to take the match. Finally, Penny at #9 nearly made it out of the weekend undefeated as she faced Katherine Leiva in a match that saw all but one set be decided by two points while two sets went into extra points.
Wesleyan finishes up the season with CSA Individuals this weekend as the Cardinals will head to Philadelphia for the final competition of the season.
