This past weekend, the Amherst women’s squash team continued it’s up and down season at the Little III championships, first blowing out Wesleyan and then falling in a full-on sweep to archrival Williams.
Hosting the championships, the purple and white faced the Cardinals on Saturday morning. With Amherst ranked No. 17 nationally and Wesleyan being only No. 23 in the most recent polls, a victory for the purple and white seemed to be in the cards.
However, the ease with which Amherst swatted aside their opponents was unexpected, with Amherst only losing five sets total in an 8-1 win.
Apart from the straight-set loss Kimberly Krayacich ’18 suffered on court one, the purple and white trounced the Cardinals up and down the lineup with Rachael Ang ’19, Priya Sinha ’19, Haley McAtee ’18, Caroline Conway ’20, Jenna Finkelstein ’20 and Mae Cromwell ’18 tallying three-set victories.
On court eight, Jenni Bown ’20 managed to overcome a first-set loss, powering her way to a 10-12, 11-9, 11-5, 11-6 win. Likewise, fellow first-year Katy Sabina Correia also needed four sets to dispatch her Cardinal opponent, posting a 11-6, 10-12, 11-8, 11-3 score line. On court ten, in the exhibition match, sophomore Emma Crowe easily handled her opponent, taking the sweep.
However, Amherst’s momentum stalled in the team’s afternoon match against the Ephs, with Williams taking each of the nine sets. With the purple and white competitors falling in three sets on every court but the fourth, fifth and sixth, there was little consolation to be found in the resounding defeat.
The closest the purple and white came to stealing a match from Williams was on court five, where Conway lost a heart-breaking five-set affair. Although she managed to force a fifth set after dropping the first two, Conway proved unable to overcome the final hurdle, falling 11-6 to her Ephs opponent in the final stanza.
The purple and white’s first-years continued their impressive campaign, as Correia and Finkelstein each claimed a set in losses on courts six and seven, respectively.
Crowe fought to a four set battle on the exhibition court before falling 11-8, 11-4, 3-11, 11-7.
The Amherst women will return to the court when they host Bates this Saturday, Feb. 4 at the Davenport Courts in NESCAC quarterfinal action.
