PHILADELPHIA (February 17, 2023) -- The No. 11 Tufts University women's squash team played one of its best matches of the season at the 2023 College Squash Association Championships Friday, starting play in the Kurtz Cup Division with an emphatic 7-2 win over No. 14 William Smith College from Penn Squash Center.
The Jumbos (13-5) dominated at the bottom half of the lineup, falling in only one game in the No. 5 through No. 9 positions on the ladder. Early competition saw senior
Isa Schneider roll to a three-game win with scores of 11-5, 11-4 and 11-8 to earn her seventh victory of the season. Minutes later,
Nieve Monderer doubled the Jumbos lead to 2-0 as she tallied her 11th win of the year at No. 5 with an 11-6, 11-2 and 11-7 win over Shante Frank.
The Herons (17-3) would get on the board at No. 3 with a thriller, as Marcela Marquez outlasted
Caroline Chin 11-6, 6-11, 11-8, 4-11, 11-5 to pull the Herons back to within one after the first wave of action. Tufts would cruise at No. 9 and No. 8 to make the score 4-1, as
Ami Sao dropped just five points all match in an 11-0, 11-2, 11-3 win over Kristen McCormick. At No. 8,
Ellyn Xu earned an 11-1, 11-4 and 11-3 win over Jessica Finnerty to put the Jumbos on the brink of advancing to the semifinals.
That win would come moments later at No. 4 as sophomore
Aleezah Burhan topped Anna O'Connor 11-9, 5-11, 11-3, 12-10, clinching the match for Tufts with a beautiful cross court switch to make the team score 5-1. Tufts would continue to clinch wins from that moment forward, upping their lead to 6-1 at No. 6 as
Sanjana Vissapragada clinched her team-best 14th victory of the campaign with an 11-8, 11-1, 5-11, 11-3 victory over Jada Smith-Padmore.
One of the most exciting matches of the day came at the top spot of the lineup, as
Vharsha Dinesh and WSC's Rafaela Albuja played a thriller that went five games. Dinesh pushed past Albuja 12-10 in the first game, but the Heron No. 1 came right back with an 11-8 win in the second game. Dinesh repeated her win from game one with a 12-10 third game win, but Albuja once again fought back with an 11-6 win in the fourth to send the game to a fifth set. In the final game, Albuja was hobbled early in the game and Dinesh would pull away for an 11-3 victory.
Another great contest finished the day's action at No. 2, as
Riddhi Joshi and Laila Selim went the full five games. Joshi rallied for back-to-back wins in games two and three before Selim sent the match to the fifth game with a 13-11 win in the fourth. In the fifth game, Joshi led early but Selim came back to take the lead at 6-5 and never trailed again in taking the victory for William Smith.
The Jumbos advance to the CSA Championships Kurtz Cup semifinals at 2 p.m. Saturday, taking on No. 10 Dartmouth College, who topped Amherst College Friday 6-3.
--JUMBOS--
