Young W. Squash Struggles As Individuals

After taking the Ivy League crown with a 5-4 win over Yale two weeks ago, the members of the Harvard women’s squash team seemed poised to duplicate their success at the College Squash Association Individual Championships.

But—perhaps serving as a testament to the strength of their play as a team—no Crimson player advanced past the quarterfinals at the Ramsay Cup last weekend at Trinity.

With junior co-captain Louisa Hall, the intercollegiate No. 4, sidelined with the flu, sophomore Lindsey Wilkins led three Crimson sophomores and freshman Tina Browne against challengers from squash powerhouse Trinity and most of the other Ivies.

Wilkins, seeded sixth, defeated 11th-seeded Frances Ho of Yale in the round of 16. The match provided little challenge for Wilkins, as she dropped only one game in her 9-0, 9-0, 9-1 victory.

In the quarterfinals, however, Wilkins came up against Trinity’s Lynn Leong, the third seed. Wilkins had fallen to Leong, a perennial obstacle for the Crimson, in Harvard’s 8-1 loss to the Bantams earlier this year.

Though the setting was different, the result was the same, as Wilkins exited the tournament, falling 9-7, 9-0, 9-1.

“I played better than last time, but she played flawlessly,” Wilkins said. “Her shots were really on.”

Sophomore Laura Delano fell to Ho in the first round 9-0, 9-3, 9-0, and lost in the Consolation bracket to Princeton’s Frances McKay 9-5, 7-9, 9-5, 9-5.

Sophomore Hilary Thorndike bowed out to Yale’s Amy Gross, the seventh seed, but advanced to the second round of the Consolation draw before falling to eventual Consolation champion and ninth seed Lillian Rosenthal of Brown.

“It can be hard to motivate for an individual tournament,” Thorndike said.

Browne lost to Rosenthal in the first round of the main draw.

Despite the less-than-stellar end to the season, Thorndike said she enjoyed the tournament.

“It’s nice to have a different dynamic than playing with the team,” Thorndike said. “It takes some of the pressure off.”

Wilkins said that the tournament felt almost anticlimactic after the elation of winning the Ivy title.

“I’m just happy with the way the season went, team-wise and individually,” Wilkins said.

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