Racquetwomen Tops

There are now two number-one ranked teams at Harvard. And neither of those teams dons skates and shoots pucks.

Both of the top-ranked teams reside in Hemenway Gymnasium, and both swing requests and smash balls.

The Harvard women's squash team joined the men's squad yesterday as the nation's number-one ranked team in intercollegiate squash.

By virtue of its first-place finish in the Howe Cup at Yale, the Crimson claimed the National Seven-Woman title for the third time since the honor was initiated in 1976.

Harvard Co-Captain Ingrid Boyum received the tournament's prestigious Betty Ritichie Trophy for her sportmanship, excellence of play and leadership.

The Crimson (now 5-0 overall) cruised through the three-day tournament, sweeping teams from Princeton, Dartmouth, Brown, Yale and Trinity.

"Our win was really great," Harvard Co-Captain Diana Edge said. "We all played really well, We had a close match against Princeton after coming off exams, which made us a little shaky. But I knew we had the potential to play well."

In the opening match Friday, Harvard found itself playing Princeton, which it had recently defeated, 5-4. The Crimson wasted little time in destroying the Tigers, 6-1.

In her first match since suffering an ankle injury, Harvard's Edge dropped the only match, losing to Princeton's Demer Holleran.

Next on Friday's agenda was Dartmouth--a squad that had already scored victories earlier in the season over Princeton and last year's Howe Cup champion, Yale. The racquetwomen whipped the Big Green, 7-0.

The first match for the Crimson Saturday was against Brown. The Crimson entered the match without Boyum--who had to interview for a fellowship. without Boyum, each racquetwoman was forced to move up a spot in the line-up. Despite the co-captain's absence, the Crimson destroyed Brown, 6-1, and defending champion Yale, 7-0.

Harvard's triumph over Yale put the Crimson in the finals against a strong Trinity squad yesterday, with both Harvard and Trinity entering the finals with a 4-0 tournament record.

In the opening match, Boyum smashed Trinity's Ellie Pierce in three straight games. When Harvard's number four, Marianna Chilton lost to Nan Cambell, 3-1, the Trinity squad closed the gap at two games to one.

Edge whipped Trinity's Sophie Porter in the number one match, 3-0, followed by wins from Jenny Holleran, Lucy Miller and Sheila Morrissey.

Brown finished third, followed by Princeton, Dartmouth and Yale.