MIDDLETOWN, Conn. - The Tufts University women's squash team split a pair of matches today during the NESCAC Championships. After falling to No. 3 Amherst in the quarterfinals Tufts was able to bounce back in the consolation rounds to defeat tournament host, No. 7 Wesleyan.
The 19th-ranked Jumbos are now 2-1 on the weekend and have evened their overall record to 8-8. Amherst is ranked 15th in the national polls and is 11-4 on the season while #20 Wesleyan drops to 11-8 overall.
Despite a strong start in their first match of the day the Jumbos were defeated 7-2 by Amherst College. Senior co-captain Claire Davidson defeated Daksha Pathak in the first position with scores of 11-4, 11-8, 4-11, 11-9 and sophomore Diya Sanghi was impressive as she shut down Riddhi Sampat in three sets (11-5, 11-6, 11-8) in the fifth slot.
The Jumbos remained competitive against Amherst all afternoon but fell in five sets in positions four, seven and eight. Close matches were also dropped at #2 when Amherst's Lauren Well handed freshman Isa Schneider a four set loss (5-11, 11-5, 11-8, 11-4) and at #6 when junior Chloe Kantor fell 7-11, 11-4,1 1-9, 11-6.
In their consolation match against Wesleyan the Jumbos were fired up and focused as they handed the #20 Cardinals their second loss of the day with an 8-1 score. Wesleyan is 0-2 versus Tufts this season and drops to 1-2 on the weekend.
After dropping the first set both senior Claire Davidson (#1) and sophomore Megan Chen (#4) battled in close games to win in four sets. Junior Chloe Kantor also won in four sets at #6 with scores of 11-5, 11-3, 4-11, 11-6. All of the remaining victories for Tufts came in three sets. Freshman Isa Schneider started off on fire as she defeated Ananya Vir 11-0 in the first set at #2 and finished the match 11-8 in both sets two and three. Senior Catherine Shanahan, junior Rachel Windreich, sophomore Natalie Bartlett and junior Radhika Joshi all cruised to three set victories in the third, seventh, eighth and ninth positions, respectively.
In the Jumbos only loss against the Cardinals, sophomore Diya Sanghi pushed Wesleyan's Natasha Feenstra in a five set battle in the fifth slot but ultimately fell short 11-8.
The Jumbos turn it around quickly as they play No. 4 Bates tomorrow (Feb. 9) at 9:30am. The winner of this match will secure fifth place in this year's NESCAC Championships. The NESCAC finals will feature No. 1 Trinity vs No. 2 Williams at 12:00pm while No. 3 Amherst will face No. 5 Middlebury for third place at noon.
