Girls’ Squash Squashes St. Paul’s

Last Saturday, Exeter girls’ varsity squash crushed the competition during their away meet at St. Paul’s, ending with a score of 7-0. They managed this success even with an injured eleventh seed, upper Evan Xiang, which meant that some girls had to play a seed up. With a 5-2 home victory against Groton School during their first game of the season back in December, the girls have a hopeful record of 2-0.Co-captain and senior Josie Russ expressed confidence in the team and is very excited about the upcoming season, as the roster recently acquired a handful of strong preps. “We have a lot of young players, specifically Euwie Park and Ursula Sze, two preps playing Exeter’s 1 and 2,” Russ said.Second seed and prep Ursula Sze knows her limits, but is optimistic about the rest of the season, based on a strong team dynamic. “One of my weaknesses is handling pressure, but I think that with experience I will learn to gain more confidence when playing. The older players really help me as role models and give me useful advice,” she said.Sze also noted that “the team still has things to work on outside of competition.” Russ agreed, saying that the girls “could improve on confidence and work ethic in practice.”Thirteenth seed and lower Katie Lee ended up playing twelfth seed on Saturday. Upper  Kaitlyn Kang, who plays ninth seed, said that Lee “played a terrific game. [Katie] has always had insane serves, so that was only the norm,” Kang said. “The match went to five games, and I think a few games even went to deuce. Both Katie and her opponent played some fantastic points. She did a great job placing the ball on the court where her opponent wasn’t. There were a few really tight rails from the back wall that basically died, but Katie picked them right back up,” she said.Prep Bella Ilchenko is the youngest on the team, but does not feel limited by her age. With only 2 months of prior squash training, Bella is less experienced than the other players on the team and doesn’t know the coach as well as the older players.“I don’t know him well, but it seems that most of the older athletes that have been in the team for longer have well established relationships with him. I like his coaching style, and I hope to get to know him better through my time on the team.” she said.The girls are hard workers and successful athletes. The team looks forward to higher successes, which will hopefully stem from a more developed work ethic. They have talent and a humble mindset, and they already know what to work on. Looking forward, the girls have an away game against Taft and Loomis Chaffee on Saturday, which will be an opportunity to further their dominating record.