Racquetwomen's 7-0 Season Remembered

"As long as we don't have any injuries, we have the potential to win it all," women's squash Co-Captain Diana Edge said at the beginning of the season.

The racquetwomen more than lived up to those words.

This season, the Harvard women's squash team not only went undefeated in season play (7-0 overall, 5-0 Ivy), but also recorded four shutouts (over Bowdoin, Brown, Penn and Dartmouth)--and won 56 individual matches while dropping only seven.

Harvard also won the Howe Cup Tournament held at Yale in February, snagging the seven-woman national championship title for the third time since the honor was initiated in 1976.

One of the major highlights of the season was when the racquetwomen destroyed Yale, 8-1, at Hemenway Gymnasium, simultaneously recapturing the national nine-woman championship title and the Ivy title from the Bulldogs. The Crimson became the team with the most Ancient Eight titles (3), and increased its total title tally to three on the year.

"They did a really nice job," first-year Harvard Coach Steve Piltch said. "I'm really proud because they earned it. It was a very rewarding year for everyone--they finished off the season with real style."

The Crimson also defeated Trinity, 7-2, and Princeton, 5-4.

In addition to the impressive slew of team awards the Crimson earned this season, many of the racquetwomen also garnered individual honors.

Co-captain and graduating senior Ingrid Boyum was awarded this year's Betty Richey Trophy in February--a highly prized accolade that goes to the squash player who exemplifies good sportsmanship and fair play, and serves as a role model for her peers.

Boyum (along with Edge) also made the All-America Squash team, and for the third consecutive year was named to the All-Ivy squash team.

In addition, Edge and Boyum were ranked numbers two and four, respectively, for the season in the national individual squash standings.

In February, Edge won the U.S. Women's Squash Nationals consolation championship, and took fifth place overall in the tournament. Edge finished second overall in the Intercollegiate Squash Championships later in the month after dropping a tough contest to the nation's number-one player, Demer Holleran.

Racquetwoman Shiela Morrissey won the first-round consolation championships in the ISA's, while Boyum finished fourth overall. Harvard players Jenny Holleran, Mariana Chilton, Emily Knowlton and Lucy Miller also competed.

The 1986-'87 Crimson was a young team; four freshman--Holleran, Chilton, Hope Nichols and Grace Sheffield--were in the Crimson's top 10 line-up. Two others--Morrissey and Jennifer Ward--were sophomores.

Nichols played number six until she sustained a knee injury after the first three games, knocking her out for the rest of the season.

"It's nice to know that the majority of the team is returning, Piltch said. "Ingrid [Boyum] held up everything Harvard athletics should be. She's a great representative of the game."

Miller will take Boyum's place as co-captain alongside Edge next year.

Harvard travels to England over Spring Break, to play some of Britain's finest squash clubs.

And although the women's squash team doesn't have as long a tradition as the men's program, it is an exceptional squad that has reached the top--and, perhaps, has started a tradition of its own.