Harvard Beats Defending Champion Yale to Win Women’s National Squash Title

Harvard University won the women’s squash team national title yesterday, defeating Ivy League rival and defending-champion Yale University 8-1.

The top-ranked Crimson, which finished the season with the Ivy League title and a 17-0 record, took a 2-1 lead after the first group of matches, and won the remaining six for its second College Squash Association team championship in the past three years.

The national title at the Murr Center in Boston, a rematch of last year’s championship, is the 13th in the history of the Harvard program. The No. 2 Bulldogs finished the season 17-2, with both losses coming to the Crimson.

“On paper, we have always been the team to beat, and we just had to come and meet our potential,” Harvard senior co- captain Cece Cortes, whose victory clinched the title, told the Harvard Crimson, the school’s student newspaper. “It was really a team effort.”

Harvard went 26-1 in its three matches in the CSA team tournament this weekend, defeating No. 8 Dartmouth College 9-0 and No. 5 Trinity College 9-0 before facing Yale.

The CSA Individual Championships are held March 2-4 at Amherst, Massachusetts, where Yale sophomore Millie Tomlinson will attempt to defend her title. Tomlinson lost to undefeated Harvard freshman Amanda Sobhy, 11-1, 11-3, 11-1, yesterday in the No. 1 match.

To contact the reporter on this story: Eben Novy-Williams in New York at enovywilliam@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at msillup@bloomberg.net