Women's Squash Dispatches Trinity to Remain Undefeated

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

CORRECTION: April 15, 2017

A previous version of this article incorrectly attributed a quote to Caroline Monrad that was actually from Kayley Leonard.

The squash courts usually have a reserved air, with cordial applause after fine rallies and shouts of encouragement given meaningfully. But with No. 3 Trinity visiting Cambridge, a large contingent of supporters came out in rowdy fashion to watch the annual marquee matchup.

The atmosphere was tense Wednesday afternoon at the Murr Center as No. 1 Harvard (9-0, 5-0 Ivy) took on the Bantams (13-2), its rival from Hartford, Conn.

In collegiate squash, the skill level of teams drops off appreciably after the top-ranked squads. The Crimson had not faced a comparable opponent since its Jan. 14 win against Penn. Trinity’s 5-4 defeat at the hands of the Quakers was, not coincidentally, its only loss of the season.

Coming off a weekend sweep against top-10 ranked Ivy League opponents Cornell and Columbia, the last two victims of the Crimson’s undefeated start, the Harvard women had momentum. Their winning streak continued on Wednesday, as the Crimson coasted to an 8-1 final decision over the Bantams.

The Crimson was the victim of a slow start, as Harvard dropped its first game in all three of the ongoing matches.

Especially frazzled was No. 3 sophomore Kayley Leonard, in the midst of a slow and deliberate technical face-off. Her opponent, freshman Vanessa Raj, converted drop shot after drop shot to counter Leonard’s equally methodical style.

Nerves were further frayed by a multitude of interference appeals going to the referee, and more often than not leading to let calls.

“So I lost the first game, and I was a little mentally out of it,” Leonard said. “But out of the first game I kind of refigured my strategy for the match. I’m not used to playing a squash player with a similar game as me, so we both had a very slow lob, drop kind of game.”

The second set was better for Leonard, who strung together point after winning point. The same happened for teammates No. 9 freshman Eleonore Evans and No. 6 senior Katherine Tutrone, who were playing adjacent to her.

The rust eventually wore off and the Crimson matched the intensity and technique of the upset-hungry Bantams. To adjust to a less aggressive opponent, Leonard played more straight balls and avoided taking rallies cross-court that made finesse shots easier to convert.

These sorts of adjustments catalyzed the first round of players to all sweep their next three games and put Harvard up the maximum after three matches, priming them to clinch the win.

The Crimson’s performance was almost predictable. It had a rough start because of recent lackluster competition. Because of mental toughness, it was able to bounce back.

“We’ve had a lot of mental training,” said No. 4 freshman Amelia Henley. “There’s been quite a lot of mentally visualizing and having really tough matches, so even though we may have won the last couple of matches the coaches have been really determined in trying to keep up focused and not get too complacent.”

Henley took that training to heart. She took her first two games, but trailing 3-7 in the third game, her momentum, and potentially her match, was slipping away. But then she started going back to her training.

“I think I just reset and focused on what my tactics were and just thought about getting one point at a time, forgetting what had just happened,” Henley said.

She managed to bring it to 9-9 and then score twice in a row to end the match in the minimum number of games.

This mental toughness was pervasive throughout the courts, and it guided Harvard to a healthy victory early in the match as it won the first five matchups. The only mishap came in the last game, as No. 7 junior Sue Ann Yong fell in five games after winning the first two.

She ended up on the other end of the battle, part physical part mental, against Trinity sophomore Jennifer Haley. Knowing that other teams possess the same killer instinct, optimizing their competitiveness will be key as the women go into the playoffs.

“So I think all of our players played really well,” sophomore Kayley Leonard said. “Even though the score was 8-1, I think it could have been a lot closer than it actually was…I think a lot of it came down to our fitness, as well. So we’re just channeling this win as we head into nationals in a few weeks.”

—Staff writer William Quan can be reached at william.quan@thecrimson.com.