W. Squash Can't Overcome Tough Draw

In what was perhaps a fitting end to the No. 2 Harvard women’s squash team’s season, the Crimson sent its top player all the way to the finals of the College Squash Association Individual Championships, only to see her beaten by a Bulldog.

Sophomore transfer Kyla Grigg faced the defending champion and No. 1 seed Michelle Quibell, of Yale, in the finals yesterday, and Grigg lost in a close match, 9-7, 1-9, 2-9, 5-9.

Harvard (9-2, 6-2 Ivy) finished its season two weeks ago with a loss to the Bulldogs—the Crimson’s second loss to the same team.

By defeating Harvard, Yale (14-0, 5-0) concluded its season by adding a Howe Cup Championship to its list of sparkling achievements, which includes a National Championship and an Ivy League Championship.

After yesterday, the Bulldogs can boast yet another triumph. Their best player, and winner of the CSA Championships, has captured the Ramsey Cup.

Going into the CSA Individual Championships on Friday, the Crimson players were fully aware of their past struggles in this particular tournament. Last season, Harvard failed to send a player past the quarterfinals for the second straight year.

This year, however, the results turned out much more favorably, though there were questions among the players concerning the dubious placements of the draw. Four of the five Crimson players in the tournament were cluttered together in the last quarter of the draw and had to play each other in the early rounds.

“[Due to the draw] at most two Harvard players could advance to the quarterfinals, and at most one to the semifinals,” said sophomore Audrey Duboc, who lost in the round of 16. “The draw was consciously made. Take away the Harvard name and maybe the players were where they were supposed to be. But [the draw] kept people out of the top-ten.”

Players must advance to the quarterfinals to be considered for the first-team All American Top-Ten.

All five of the Crimson’s players—including co-captain and seventh seed Lindsay Wilkins, freshmen Jen Blumberg and Supriya Balsekar, Duboc, and second seed Grigg—advanced to the round of 16. Because of the draw and their first-round success, four of the five Harvard players had to play the round of 16 against their own teammates.

In four games, Blumberg defeated Wilkins, who appeared to suffer a leg injury in the fourth game.

“I think it’s the quad,” Wilkins said, “but I’m going to have my trainer check it out.”

In the other match in the round of 16, Grigg defeated Balsekar, 9-7, 9-5, 9-5.

“It was kind of sad that we had to play each other,” said Balsekar, who advanced into the second round after dispatching Marilla Hiltz of Princeton.

Duboc, the lone Crimson player not to play against her teammates, fell to Quibell, 2-9, 1-9, 1-9.

“Michelle is a textbook player, and she doesn’t make mistakes,” Duboc said.

With three of the five Crimson players knocked out of the tournament after the round of 16, Grigg and Blumberg played each other in the quarterfinals, ensuring that Harvard would send a player into the semifinals.

After defeating Blumberg in three games, Grigg played a five-set match in the semifinals against third-seeded Vaidehi Reddy, of Trinity, and defeated her, 9-4, 9-2, 6-9, 4-9, 9-7. The length of the semifinal match might well have caused her to run out of gas in the final against Quibell.

“[The final] was a great, great match,” Duboc said. “Quibell broke Kyla down. She couldn’t keep up with the pace and got frustrated with herself after she made a lot of errors. Quibell is a steady and focused player who is hard to crack. You have to work hard for every single point…There is no freebie with that girl.”

Grigg had beaten Quibell earlier in the season, but this time was different.

“She had to play her after a long string of matches,” Duboc said. “It was a matter of fitness.”

“Yale is a great team,” Balsekar said. “They just had a lot more depth [than we did].”