Waiting for revenge after heartbreaking loss

Although its 4-2 record can hardly be considered a disappointment, the women's squash team has lost its two opening Ivy matches, adding more bumps on the road to bettering last year's fifth-place finish in the Ivy standings.

The team benefits from an experienced core made up of seven seniors, including top-ranked captain Catherine Fiederowicz, DC '01, and three juniors. However, the team's cohesion and tournament experience that have been this season's keys to success will be gone next year, making Head Coach Mark Talbott heavily dependent on a strong recruiting class.

Early practices and a strong group effort were not enough to overcome a Cornell team that Yale had dominated in the past. Cornell beat the Bulldogs 6-3 on Sat., Jan. 20, but the individual matches proved closer than the overall score suggests. Less than four points decided three matches, resulting in an even more bitter disappointment following the loss.

Despite these early setbacks, Talbott feels optimistic about the experience gained from these early matches and believes that the team will be more confident in its ability to close the remaining months with a series of victories. "Despite the shaky start and the disappointment of the Cornell loss, I'm confident that we are ready and able to defeat our opponents, but the rest of the season is only a warm-up for the Howe Cup," Talbott said. The Howe Cup, hosted annually at Yale, invites the Ivy League and about 15 other schools to compete in the season-ending championship. There, the Bulldogs can avenge their Cornell loss and an even more disappointing 5-4 loss to Penn in their season opener.

—Kevin Tran

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