Womens Squash

Cards, Seeded 1st in "C" Division and 17th Overall, Go 2-1 at Howe Cup for 3rd place, 19th Overall

The top-ranked squad in the Walker ("C") Division at the Howe Cup Tournament hosted by Yale Fri.-Sun., Feb. 26-28, Wesleyan got things started in fine fashion by upending eighth-seeded William Smith, 9-0, on Friday. It was Wesleyan's second victory over the Herons this season, having won 8-1 in Middletown back in December.

The Cardinals' second-round opponent on Saturday was fourth-seeded and 20th ranked overall George Washington, one of three teams in the Walker Division Wesleyan did not play during the regular season. GWU defeated St. Lawrence, 7-2, in its opening match. GWU rose to the occasion and knocked off the Cardinals, 8-1, to advance to the Walker title match. That put Wesleyan in the match for 19th place nationally and third in the division Sunday against F&M, which fell to Vassar in its semi-final, 5-4.

Wesleyan came through with a 5-4 triumph vs. the Diplomats, another team the Cardinals did not play prior this year. Playing the final dual matches of her career, #1 Casey Simchik '10 (main photo) broke the 4-4 team tie as her 3-0 win was the last match finished on the day. Also winning 3-0 in her last career match was #5 Gwynne Hunter '10 (photo insert upper left). Other Wesleyan wins vs. F&M came from #3 Tanesha Jackson '13 (3-0), #4 Danielle Craig '13 (3-1) and #7 Caroline Fox '12 (3-0). The remaining Cardinals all took at least one game from their rival with both #8 Ashley Garrett '12 and #9 Elizabeth Larner '10 falling in a fifth game.

Wesleyan got 3-0 wins from five players against William Smith including Simchik, Jackson, Hunter, #6 Jenny Chu '11 and Larner. The remaining Cardinals all won by 3-1 counts.

Against GWU, the lone Wesleyan victor was Larner who took a 3-1 win. Three Cardinals fell by a 3-2 score while two other took a game from their GWU opponent as the match was much closer than the team score indicated.

With the win its their final match on Sunday, the Cardinals accomplished something they haven't done in 11 seasons - lock up a winning record. Finishing 15-14 on the year, the squad came up with a winning ledger for the first time since 1998-99 when the Cards posted a 13-11 mark. That concluded a streak of seven straight winning records for the squad from 1992-99, which featured a composite mark of 103-61 and a school-record 19-5 posting in 1996-97.

In 2009-10, Chu had the best seasonal mark for Wesleyan with a 17-12 posting. Fox was next with a 15-13 record.

Simchik closed out her outstanding Wesleyan career by competing in the "B" Division of the National Individual Tournament hosted by Trinity Fri.-Sun., March 5-7. She dropped both her matches at Nationals. During her Cardinal career, Simchik played all of her 104 dual matches at #1 with 33 victories.