Racquetwomen Go West, Return 3-1

While the town of Northampton imported snow from Buffalo for its winter carnival, Smith College imported squash teams. The result was that the Radcliffe squashers played four matches in two days and came out with a 3-1 record.

It was the first match, played Thursday night, in which Radcliffe fell--and they fell hard to Yale, the number one college squad, by 7-0.

The shutout loss was captain Julia Moore's first loss of the season. "Radcliffe played well, but Yale's very good," coach Eric Cutler said yesterday.

Sarah Mleczko, who regained her number two position last week, lost to Yale's Claire Swanger 3-1. "She stayed with her until the last game, when she lost 15-9," Cutler said.

Friday, the racquetwomen rebounded and posted three strong victories, 7-0 over both Amherst and Smith, and 5-2 against Vassar.

The matches against Amherst and Smith were easy wins. But Vassar had previously beaten Penn, a school to which Radcliffe lost, so a 5-2 victory over the New Yorkers was not a foregone conclusion.

The two losses in the Vassar match came at number one, Moore, and number six, Becky Miles. Moore dropped her match to a more experienced Sarah Luther, 3-2.

"I lost my concentration. I had her 2-0 and somehow she gained control," Moore said. "I started thinking about winning instead of thinking about each point. I sort of blanked out the last three games," she added.

Comeback

Margot McGlade, Radcliffe's number five player, had the most exciting win of the two-day spree. "I played really badly against Yale, Smith, and Amherst. Against Vassar, I was down 2-0 and I was really discouraged," McGlade said.

But the Vassar match was the last one of the trip, and McGlade had gotten used to the fast Smith courts. She came back from the two-game deficit and forged a 3-2 victory.

This week, the racquetwomen close out their regular season against Bowdoin Wednesday and then travel to Philadelphia for the Nationals this weekend.