Fresh Faces Must Step Up For W. Squash

The burden of carrying one of Harvard’s most hallowed sports traditions falls on a fresh set of backs this year.

One of Harvard’s most successful teams returns to action this Friday when women’s squash faces Brown in its season opener. Though the Crimson has won two straight Ivy titles and is only two years removed from a national championship, it has its work cut out for itself this year with losses at three of the top five positions on the ladder.

Harvard is ranked No. 3 in the nation in the preseason polls, behind perennial powerhouse Trinity and recently resurgent Yale in the preseason polls. The Crimson will have to rely on an extremely young squad’s speedy maturation to have any chance to compete this year.

Leading the way will be junior co-captain Louisa Hall at No. 1.

“It’s been fun being co-captain, except that it was strange at first because I didn’t feel old enough to fill the shoes of the captains last year,” Hall said. “Last year I definitely still felt like one of the young kids, so as a junior I think it was a big transition to make.”

Along with the lone senior, Ella Witcher, Hall takes the reins of the team after her sister, Colby, co-captained the team just last season. The younger Hall carries a string of accolades and the pressure that comes with a No. 3 national preseason ranking.

But she has impressed in practice and scrimmages already, appearing faster after a summer of training at home in Pennsylvania. Hall was on her game this past June when she competed in the U.S. Women’s Team Trials in Seattle, defeating Nationals finalist Meredeth Quick.

“She’s probably twice as fast, and her movement around the court is excellent,” Harvard coach Satinder Bajwa said. “Her crispness on the ball is better. Only time will tell how she’ll play, but she looks every bit a top contender.”

Witcher is a tough competitor herself, suffering the closest defeat to Trinity in the Howe Cup finals last season, losing in a fifth-game tiebreaker.

The two captains are the oldest players on the team, after junior Kristin Wadhwa decided to sit out this year to study abroad in the spring.

Sophomore Lindsey Wilkins distinguished herself last year by going undefeated at No. 3 and winning both her matches against Trinity. She earned First Team All-Ivy and Ivy League Rookie of the Year and will start the season playing in the No. 2 slot vacated by Margaret Elias.

Wilkins began competition this year strong again, defeating Yale’s No. 2 Amy Gross last weekend when the Crimson won the Ivy Scrimmage at Princeton. Gross, the second ranked junior player behind classmate Michelle Quibell, is one of three freshmen Bulldogs expected to push Yale to the top of the Ivies.

“Lindsey did an awesome job this weekend,” Hall said. “It was nice for Lindsey to see how much she’s improving since getting to college.”

Harvard hopes that Wilkins’ rookie season sets a precedent for the four freshmen—Moira Weigel, Allison Fast, Tina Brown and Courtney Wallach—entering the fray this season. With gaps left in the middle of the lineup after the graduation of Carlin Wing and Colby Hall, the first years will be expected to strengthen the depth of the team.

“It’s going to be key for our freshmen to keep working hard,” Hall said. “All of us have to keep working as hard as we’ve been working. We’re not going to beat Yale if we stay at the same level.”

Bajwa predicts that the key for the Crimson will be the play of sophomore Laura Delano, who did not compete during the stretch run last year.

“Losing those two matches to Trinity with Laura Delano wouldn’t have happened,” Bajwa said. “But she’s back. She’s in essence our ‘recruit,’ and she’s going to make the difference playing Yale and playing Trinity.”

Projected to play No. 5 or 6, Delano had difficulty getting into the rhythm of school and squash as a freshman and suffered physically as a result.

“I came from boarding school, and it was hard to settle down and focus,” Delano said. “I was getting sick a lot and hurt a lot. By the time I got better, I thought it was time to settle down and focus on studies and give myself a break to realize how much I missed squash. It was good to clear my mind.”

The addition of Delano—who cites finding an inner balance and working on her mental game as her goals for the season—to the middle of the lineup will be all the more important once Yale, who was shorthanded at the scrimmages, returns to full strength. The Yale match is not until Feb. 19, though Harvard will face the Elis in another scrimmage during reading period.

“Yale will definitely be our toughest competition in the Ivy League,” Hall said. “We have enough time to improve. I think if we keep up the good work, we can beat them.”

Bajwa also singled out Alexandra Johnson as a player to watch. Johnson played between No. 11 and 13 last year, but she has been competing with the fifth and sixth slotted players thus far this year.

“Alex Johnson and Laura Delano regrouping themselves as sophomores is going to be a great asset along with the four freshmen,” Bajwa said.

Putting Johnson and Delano in the mix with sophomores Hilary Thorndike, who went undefeated last season, and Stephanie Hendricks, the Crimson is faced with the welcome challenge of sorting out its ladder this year.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen, who’s going to play where, which is a good situation to have,” Bajwa said. “We know that Louisa’s No. 1 and Lindsey’s 2, and then there’s a slight drop. But, that drop isn’t as big as it once was.”

The true test for Harvard’s success lies in the team’s ability to use its incredible wealth of young talent to compensate for the holes in its lineup left by last year’s seniors.

“If we can win the Ivies, we will contend for the national title as well,” Bajwa said. “We have very strong depth to do that. That is the beauty of the women’s team.”

The first test of this depth will come Friday night at 7 p.m. when Brown travels to the Barnaby Courts at the Murr Center.

—Staff writer Brenda E. Lee can be reached at belee@fas.harvard.edu.