Girls’ Varsity Squash Brings the Heat to Philly
Over the weekend, Big Red Squash packed their bags and headed to Philly for the annual U.S. Squash National Tournament. The eight Exeter representatives left on Thursday with their hopes high, getting ready to bash New Haven on Friday morning to kick off the weekend. The lineup consisted of seniors Katie Lee and Alexis Lee, uppers Chandler Jean-Jacques, Euwie Park, Caroline Matule, Ursula Sze and Emma Cohen and the sole but shining prep, Anne Brandes.
The Friday morning match against New Haven did not go as planned. In the words of Jean-Jacques, “It was tough; everyone was pretty much even and we got the unlucky draw to lose 3-4.” However, the team left the venue knowing they were going to come back stronger than ever before.
After resting all of Friday afternoon and night, the elite eight stepped up to the plate for an intense match up with Blair Academy of Blairstown, New Jersey. The team easily won against Blair with a final score of 6-2, but they weren’t done yet. The team’s second match on Saturday was against the Poly Prep Squad from Brooklyn. As both teams filed onto the courts, the battle of the Big Red Lions and the Blue Devils began.
The Blue Devils did not last very long, as they were quickly trounced in a 6-1 loss. Following the victory, Exeter returned to the hotel and forfeited all matches for the following day, Sunday, in hopes of returning to school before check in to prepare for the academic week ahead. The epic adventure had come to an end, and Big Red came home with an overall tournament record of 2-1.
Looking back on the tournament, Matule commended teammate Sze on her brilliant performance over the weekend, “Ursula did very well,” Matule said. “She won all of her games.” Sze followed this up in similar fashion with a tribute to Park’s efforts, saying, “Euwie had a great weekend overall; she did not lose a single match.”
Jean-Jacques had her own highlights of the weekend to share. One of which was the spectacle of Matule’s match against Blair Academy. “Caroline played very well and had a big win against Blair in a score of 3-2,” Jean-Jacques said.
The biggest challenge the team faced this weekend, in the eyes of Jean-Jacques, was mentality. “We knew the last teams were going to be a little easier to play and we didn’t want to go down to their level,” she explained.
As the team prepares to host Interschols at the Fisher Squash center in late February, it looks to battle hard over the coming weeks and gain some momentum to carry them through. The team’s next match is at Saturday at 3 p.m. at the Winsor School in Boston. You can catch their next home game on Feb. 21 at 2:45 p.m., when Gunga and all of Big Blue come to town for the E/a matchup. As the season draws closer to its end, the team’s only focus is the Interscholastic Championship. As Sze concluded, “Nationals was for the team. Interschols is for the player.”