SEASON RECAP: Women's Squash

Heading into the 2004-2005 season, Ivy rival Princeton, longtime nemesis Trinity, and defending league and national champion Yale were all ranked above the Crimson women’s squash team. Harvard stood at No. 4, a mixed bag of seasoned veterans, fresh faces, and a lot of questions. How would the quartet of talented newcomers adjust to college squash? Who would replace the No. 1 punch of former captain Louisa Hall ’04, one of the top female squash players in the world? Could the Crimson hold its own against the Tigers, Bantams, and Bulldogs and avenge its first Ivy losses in three years?

By February, those questions were definitively answered. And that No. 4 ranking was a thing of the past.

Bolstered by an intersession training trip to San Francisco, where the team played against adults, club teams, and, in an exhibition, the Stanford men’s squad, Harvard rolled into its annual bout with No. 2 Trinity on Feb. 3, looking fit and fiery.

A near-capacity crowd was on hand at the Murr Center in anticipation of the men’s match later that evening—but it was the women’s contest that had the spectators enthralled.

With the overall score tied at two wins apiece midway through play, the remaining players battled it out in pursuit of the five victories necessary for a team win. Four of the final five matches went to five games, including the two crucial wins by freshmen Jennifer Blumberg and Supriya Balsekar at No. 3 and No. 5, respectively, which cemented the Crimson’s stunning upset.

For the seniors on the ladder—co-captain No. 2 Lindsey Wilkins, co-captain No. 8 Hilary Thorndike, and No. 9 Stephanie Hendricks—it was the first time they had toppled the Bantams in their college careers. Both Thorndike and Hendricks called it one of the proudest achievements of their season.

“I think the team jelled really well this year. You could tell people were psyched to be together,” Thorndike said. “It makes you want to win if you love the people you’re playing with, if you care about the people you’re playing for.”

But the upset only got the ball rolling for Harvard. Just four days later, on its Penn-Princeton swing, the Crimson stormed into New Jersey and dropped the No. 3 Tigers 6-3.

“I think the nice thing was that the pressure was off,” Hendricks said of the team’s underdog status. “Our goal was just to work hard and take every match as it came, and not to think too far ahead.”

With the victories came a No. 2 ranking and an Ivy-title showdown with No. 1 Yale on Feb. 12. In front of a packed house, Harvard fought the reigning champs point for point in an eventual 5-4 loss.

The four losses that the Crimson hung on the Bulldogs were one more than Yale had cumulatively lost during the entire season to date.

Another bright spot in defeat was the performance of sophomore transfer Kyla Grigg, the eventual Ivy Rookie of the Year. Grigg notched a five-game win over Michelle Quibell, the No. 2-ranked player in the nation who would go on to win her second consecutive individual tournament title the next month.

“It was too bad that we lost to Yale in a close match,” Thorndike said, “but losing 5-4 to Yale was really an accomplishment.”

The Crimson took its No. 2 seeding into the Howe Cup national tournament the next weekend, where the team once again defeated Trinity—this time by a 6-3 margin—en route to a 7-2 loss to the Bulldogs in the finals.

—Staff writer Lisa J. Kennelly can be reached at kennell@fas.harvard.edu.