NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Sunday, the Yale women's squash team finished their season with a 6-3 win over the Cornell Big Red in the finals of the Howe Cup consolation bracket.
After a 9-0 victory over No. 8 Brown on Saturday, the No. 5-ranked Bulldogs were matched up against No. 6 Cornell in a rematch of a regular season showdown that the Bulldogs took, in a bit of foreshadowing, 6-3.
Sunday's match started off in favor of the Bulldogs, with sophomores Shihui Mao and Issey Norman-Ross sweeping their matches at Nos. 3 and 6, respectively. Mao, ranked No. 38, was up against No. 20 Jaime Laird, and won 12-10, 11-7, 11-8 in an impressive performance. Norman-Ross was facing Maggie Remsen, and after a closely contested 11-9 first game, took over and finished Remsen off 11-5 and 11-4. Cornell, though, tightened the score to 2-1 at No. 9, where Teur Odinak beat senior Katie Harrison 11-7, 10-12, 12-10, 11-4.
In the second rotation, Yale once again came out on top, 2-1. Senior captain Katie Ballaine was playing at No. 2 against Jesse Pacheco, ranked No. 26 to Ballaine's No. 28. Pacheco took the first game easily, 11-2, but Ballaine came back 14-12 in the second to even the score. Unfortunately for Yale, Pacheco took over the rest of the way, finishing the match 11-8, 11-7. Ballaine's loss was more than made up for by junior Lilly Fast at No. 5 and by freshman Anne Ballaine in the eighth spot. Fast topped Rachel Au 11-8, 11-8, 11-7, but the younger Ballaine had a much harder time. Facing Lindsay Seginson, Ballaine had to go all the way to five games to finish the match, eventually taking the fifth game 11-5.
Up 4-2, the Bulldogs needed only one more win from Nos. 1, 4 and 7 to win the match. They would get two, from junior Millie Tomlinson at No. 1 and sophomore Anna Harrison at No. 7. The No. 2-ranked Tomlinson topped Danielle Letourneau, ranked No. 9 nationally, by a score of 11-3, 12-10, 13-11. Harrison was playing Brynn Daniels, and came away with a 11-8, 13-11, 11-4 win to further extend Yale's margin of victory. Junior Gwen Tilghman fell 11-1, 12-10, 11-6 to Abbey Foster, but the Bulldog victory was unthreatened by the loss.
In the rest of the tournament, No. 4 Trinity followed up their win over Yale to upset No. 1 Princeton 6-3 on Saturday. The Bantams came up just short in the final against Harvard, falling 5-4 to give the Crimson their second consecutive national championship.
While team play is done for the 2012-13 season, the CSA Individual Championships are still yet to come, with play scheduled to start March 1 at Trinity College in Hartford.
Singles 
|
Indicates Winner |
| Yale University | Rating | Cornell University | Rating | Winner's Score | Winner | Status | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1WS | Tomlinson,Millie | 0.000 | Letourneau,Danielle C | 0.000 | 11-3,12-10,13-11 | Yale University | C |
| 2WS | Ballaine,Katie W | 0.000 | Pacheco,Jesse | 0.000 | 11-2,12-14,11-8,11-7 | Cornell University | C |
| 3WS | Mao,Shihui | 0.000 | Laird,Jaime M | 0.000 | 12-10,11-7,11-8 | Yale University | C |
| 4WS | Tilghman,Gwendoline C | 0.000 | Foster,Abbey P. | 0.000 | 11-1,12-10,11-6 | Cornell University | C |
| 5WS | Fast,Lillian A. | 0.000 | Au,Rachel KH | 0.000 | 11-8,11-8,11-7 | Yale University | C |
| 6WS | Norman-Ross,Issey | 0.000 | Remsen,Maggie | 0.000 | 11-9,11-5,11-4 | Yale University | C |
| 7WS | Harrison,Anne | 0.000 | Daniels,Brynn C. | 0.000 | 11-8,13-11,11-4 | Yale University | C |
| 8WS | Ballaine,Annie Y | 0.000 | Seginson,Lindsay M. | 0.000 | 11-6,13-11,11-8,6-11,11-5 | Yale University | C |
| 9WS | Harrison,Katie | 0.000 | Odinak,Reut | 0.000 | 11-7,10-12,12-10,11-4 | Cornell University | C |
Report by Calvin Bohn '14, Yale Sports Publicity