Elis Edge Racquetwomen, Avenging Howe Cup Loss

After snow forced postponement of Saturday's Harvard-Yale women's squash match, the Crimson racquetwomen travelled to New Haven Wednesday to prove that their Howe Cup victory two weeks ago over the Elis was no fluke. The Elis emerged with a hard-fought 4-3 victory, but the match could have gone either way.

Courtney Stimpson and Wendy Sonnabend, both leading 2-1, on the verge of clinching a Crimson victory, fell to their Yale opponents in five games.

Stimpson, in the third slot, had four match points against Ann Cascel in her fourth game; but Cascel came back to take that game and went on to win the match, 16-17, 15-10, 10-15, 17-16, 15-13.

Meanwhile, Sonnabend, who had just recovered from the flu, tired in her final two games to lose, 15-9, 9-15, 15-11, 10-15, 12-15.

The Difference

"The match was as close as it could be," Crimson coach Jack Barnaby said afterwards. "We could have won any of those match point in Courtney's match. We did have some players hit by the flu bug, out all teams have to contend with that. I'm not offering any alibis," he added.

On the brighter side, Crimson captain Jenny Stone continued her strong late-season play with an easy 15-8, 15-10, 15-12 sweep in the fifth position.

Freshman Lisa Harrison, one of Harvard's strongest players this year, was out with the flu, and her absence undoubtedly hurt the Crimson.

But her classmate Jackie Cunningham came from behind to topple T. Strain, 13-15, 15-10, 15-16, 15-10, 15-13. Corrigan had known her opponent for many years in their home town of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., but the two had never played each other before.

In the seventh position, Ellie Cunningham avenged her Howe Cup loss to Hilary Knox with a resounding 15-11, 15-8, 15-7 decision over the Eli.

The Crimson was not so fortunate in the higher positions. Number one Becky Tung's knee bothered her as she lost to Yale's Tracey Ball, 15-9, 9-15, 10-15, 12-15, for the first time ever.

And number two Sarah Mleczko, out for almost a week with a hamstring injury, fell to Eli Kim Perkins.