The women's squash team faced its final challenge of the season this weekend, traveling to Princeton, N.J., to compete in the A division of the 2008 Howe Cup, the national tournament for squash. After starting with a 9-0 loss to Princeton on Friday, the team improved throughout the weekend, managing two wins in its 7-2 loss to Dartmouth, and three in Sunday's match with Stanford. The loss to Stanford dropped the Bears in the national rankings from seventh to eighth place. This weekend leaves Brown with a final 8-10 season record.
The team overcame an immense psychological hurdle in facing second-ranked Princeton, the eventual winners of the tournament, in its first match by continuing on from the 9-0 loss to perform well in its subsequent matches. Co-captain Minoo Fadaifard '08 said that "it was a little bit frustrating facing the expected winners of the tournament first, and playing the best you can play to no avail. But I think everyone took their losses in their stride and used the match as an opportunity to get comfortable playing on the Princeton courts."
Just as the men's team bounced back from a first-match loss at nationals two weekends ago, the women built momentum with wins from Kali Schellenberg '10 at No. 7 and Sarah Roberts '10 at No. 9, who both won their matches, 3-1, against Dartmouth. Other valiant performances were delivered by Lily Cohen '11 at No. 8 who, despite a sprained ankle, managed to push her opponent to four games, and Breck Haynes '09 at No. 4, who narrowly lost in the fifth game of her thrilling match. Despite performances stronger than on the previous day, Bruno still came up short, 7-2.
The last match of the weekend proved to be the most exciting, as the Bears battled the Stanford Cardinal for seventh place. Though the Bears beat Stanford, 5-4, on Feb. 1, Brown entered the encounter at a disadvantage. One of its key players, Cohen, was still hobbled by her sprained ankle. Schellenberg and Roberts both played consistently well, but the team was only capable of winning three of the nine matches. The third win, however, was undoubtedly the best of the day, coming from Fadaifard in her last mach for the Bears. Having lost the first game, 9-0, Fadaifard fought her way back to overcome her Stanford counterpart, also a senior, 0-9, 9-5, 9-6, 10-8, after being down 0-8 in the fourth.
Closing out her Brown career with an excellent performance, Fadaifard said she "felt great. It was the last match for both my opponent and me. Having lost by a wide margin in the first game I realized it was time to give it my all. I then played the best squash I think I could play."
She then admitted to sneaking the score sheet as a memento, causing her to doubt whether or not there are now actually any official records of her win.
The season as a whole has been a relatively successful one for the women, who, at one point, remained undefeated for six consecutive matches. "We're a very young team, with a lot of freshmen and sophomores," Fadaifard said. "I think we can be proud of playing a lot of great, consistent squash over the season. We were somewhat lucky in that most of our games were played at home so we had the benefit of our fans' presence, but our competitive outlook has meant that we have turned up to each match ready to play, she said. We're a very close squad who have a lot of fun both on and off court, so it's somewhat sad that the season is over."
The Bears pulled out some exceptional performances this season, with three matches ending five games to four, in a sport where close matches are almost unheard of. The team will lose seniors Denia Craig '08, co-captain Megan Cerullo '08 and Fadaifard.
