Blue Squash Tops Mount Holyoke, 8-1

WELLESLEY, Mass. -- Wellesley College squash cruised to an 8-1 win over rival Mount Holyoke College on Saturday afternoon at the Dana Hall School's Shipley Center. The Blue improve to 2-0 early in the season, while Mount Holyoke starts off the year with a setback.

Sophomore Sarah Zhang (Lexington, Mass.) rallied from a first set deficit to defeat Mount Holyoke's Brandy Williamson (New York, N.Y.) in the number one matchup, 8-11, 11-5, 11-7, 11-3. The Blue then went on to sweep matches two through eight without dropping a set.

Sophomore Phyllis Lin (Acton, Mass.) defeated Ragini Ghose (Dubai), 11-6, 11-5, 11-8, at number two, while Meera Nayar (Mamaroneck, N.Y.) opened with an 11-3 win over Allison Shilling (New Canaan, Conn.) before closing out the matchup with two-straight 11-7 wins at number three. 

The Blue continued to roll in matchups four through six. Senior Gabriella Wynne (Brookline, Mass.) topped Lessly Portillo (New Haven, Conn.), 11-3, 11-4, 11-7 at number four. Rhea Advani (Mumbai, India) then bested Emily Chang (Carmichael, Calif.), 11-2, 11-5, 11-7, at number five and Navisha Gupta (Mumbai, India) defeated Rose Minichiello (Collinsville, Conn.), 11-3, 11-7, 11-2, in the number six matchup. 

Kate Loftus (Portland, Ore.) and Ruby Feng (Old Lyme, Conn.) scored Wellesley victories at number seven and number eight, respectively. Loftus defeated Tanishka Sachidanand (Karnataka, India), 11-2, 11-7, 11-5, at seven, while Feng downed Annie Wong (Oakland, Calif.), 11-5, 11-4, 11-4, at number eight. 

Mount Holyoke broke up the Blue's bid to sweep the match at number nine thanks to an 11-2, 11-4, 13-11 victory from Amanda Lee over first year Lumi Kinjo (Tokyo, Japan). 

Wellesley squash will take on Stanford in the team's next match on Friday evening, November 20, at 5:00 PM. The match will take place at Harvard.