The Girls’ Squash Team poses after triumph in the Division II National Championships.
Over the weekend, the Girls’ Varsity Squash Team traveled to the Westminster School to compete in the Division II National Championship against 16 other teams from across the nation. The tournament took place over three days, with the Wild Boars competing against Baldwin in their first match on Friday. Choate made quick work of their matchup, taking all seven games on Friday to begin the tournament with no individual losses.
On Saturday, Choate faced the Hackley School, which had squeaked out a 4-3 victory over Episcopal Academy the previous day. Co-captain Caroline Soper ’17 commented, “We paired up against Hackley, and their team is historically very good. They have a very strong top four, so we knew that we would have to play at the top of our game and start the win from the bottom up if we wanted to beat them.” The match proved to be a tough test for the Wild Boars, but they ultimately pulled out a tight 4-3 win, with Samantha Stevenson ’19 winning the final match to send Choate to the semifinals. Co-captain Olivia van den Born ’17 commented on Stevenson’s performance, “I was particularly proud of her for playing so well under such pressure.”
In the semifinals later that day, Choate faced Agnes Irwin, a team that had beaten both Sacred Heart and the Taft School already. However, Choate prevailed again, taking the match 6-1 and bringing their individual totals to 17 wins and just 4 losses. This win sent the girls’ team to the National Title match against Pingry (which had an individual record of of 16 wins and 5 losses) on Sunday.
Van den Born commented on the buzz around the courts leading up to the finals, saying, “The courts were absolutely packed. If you wanted peace and quiet to prepare before the match, you had to head into the stairwell or up three flights of stairs to the locker room.” The match against Pingry was set to be difficult, like the match against Hackley. Soper said, “The top of Pingry’s ladder is also very strong, so we knew that the bottom of the ladder would have to play especially well if we wanted to beat them.” Van den Born mentioned that this was the closest she had come to a championship since her freshman year, where Choate lost in the finals.
This time, however, things would play out differently for the Boars: van den Born, Madison Sakhiem ’18, Soper, and Stevenson (with the deciding victory yet again) all won their matches. Hope Worcester ’19, Keeley Osbourne ’18, and Mia Krishnamurthy ’19 also played “some of their best competitive matches of the season,” according to Soper. With a final tally of four wins and three losses, the Choate girls took home the Division II National Title. For van den Born, after four years in Choate’s squash program, her dream had finally become a reality. She shared, “It was an unbelievable feeling to win the title this season. It certainly took a while for it to sink in when the match was over, but all I feel now is pride in each and every one of the girls on this team and even more drive to train for New Englands. The season isn’t over yet!” Truly, the season is far from over for the squad, with matches against Deerfield, Andover, and Rye Country Day coming up as well as the New England Championships at the end of this month.
