CLINTON, N.Y. – The No. 16 women's squash team picked up two road wins on Saturday to complete a 3-0 opening weekend of the 2021-22 season. The Jumbos earned a 6-3 win over No. 21 William Smith and a 9-0 blanking of No. 24 Connecticut College. Both matches took place at Hamilton College, who the Jumbos took on on Friday night and won 9-0.
Tufts faced off with William and Smith first on Saturday. Freshman Riddhi Joshi took on the Heron's Marcela Marquez in the top spot and earned a hard-fought 3-2 win. Joshi won the first game 11-8 before falling to Marquez 11-7 in the second game and 12-10 in the third. But, Joshi came back and won the fourth and fifth games (11-7 and 11-6) to collect a point for Tufts. Sophomore Sanjana Vissapragada collected a 3-2 win for Tufts in the third spot. She dropped the first two games in extra points 10-12 to Diya Moolani. She then came back and won the third game convincingly, 11-2, and won the fourth and fifth (11-9 and 11-8) to tally another point for Tufts.
Rookie Nieve Monderer blanked Jada Smith-Padmore in the fifth spot, winning in three games (11-7, 11-3, 11-7). Similarly, senior Diya Sanghi needed just three games to beat Shante Frank in the sixth position (11-2, 11-9, 11-9). Freshman Ellie Ackerman (pictured) collected a close 3-2 win in the seventh spot. She scored first with a game one win over Joana Pacheco, 11-5. Pacheco took the second game 14-16, but Ackerman responded with an 11-7 win in game three. After Pacheco tied things with an 11-9 win in the fourth game, Ackerman won 11-3 in the fifth to score for Tufts. The last win for the Jumbos came in the ninth spot, as sophomore Ami Sao won over Kristen McCormick, 3-0 (11-0, 11-5, 11-1).
After the win over the Herons the Jumbos collected a 9-0 win over Connecticut College. Tufts won 3-0 over the Camels in all nine positions. Sophomore Caroline Chin allowed her Camel opponent to score just six points across three games in a 3-0 win in the top spot. Monderer took on Isabel Schumacher in the second spot and won 11-2, 11-1, 11-0. Sanghi faced off with Liliana Vazquez in the third position and won, 11-5, 11-7 and 11-4.
Ackerman collected her second win of the day playing in the fourth spot, winning in three over Karen Escalera. Senior Natalie Bartlett topped Johanile Hurtado in the fifth spot (11-7, 11-4, 11-9). Sao won again for the Jumbos, this time in the sixth spot, beating Birgitta Quinn, 11-6, 11-4, 11-9. Sophomore Ellyn Xu took on Caroline Champa in the seventh position and won, 11-2, 11-2, 11-9. In the eighth spot freshman Anushka Gupta faced off with Crystal Dixon and won in three. Rounding out the Jumbos' lineup was sophomore Kate Chang in the ninth spot, and she beat Angela Cao, 11-5, 11-1, 11-4.
The Jumbos improve to 3-0 on the season with the two wins Saturday. They are back in action on November 30 when they play at home for the first time this season, hosting top-ranked Harvard for a 5 pm start.
