Women's Squash 2009-10 Schedule Announced

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - The Harvard women’s squash team is coming off a stellar 2008-09 season, in which the squad finished second at the College Squash Association (CSA) Team Championships and boasted an overall record of 10-2. The Crimson will look to improve upon last year's standing this winter, as the team will play four home contests and nine regular season matches in total.

The 2009-10 season begins with three away matches at Brown (Nov.20), Williams (Nov. 22) and Dartmouth (Dec. 5). The Crimson will host both Cornell and Stanford on Dec. 5 for their first home contests of the year. Harvard will then take a break from competition until Jan. 30 when they will travel to Trinity for a match.

The Crimson will finish off the regular season with three consecutive highly competitive matches.  Harvard will host Penn on Feb. 6 and Princeton, the defending national champion, on Feb. 7. Princeton edged out the Crimson twice last season with a pair of 5-4 wins at Barnaby Courts, Harvard’s only two losses, including a showdown in the national title match. Harvard’s final regular season match will be at Yale on Feb. 13.

The Crimson will look for the program’s 12th national team championship when the team competes at the CSA Team Championships at Yale Feb. 26-28.  Harvard wraps up the season at the CSA Individual Championships at Trinity March 5-7.

Juniors Alisha Mashruwala and June Tiong will look to three-peat as CSA All-Americans in 2009-10, as both have earned All-America status in each of their first two seasons. Junior Bethan Williams and sophomores Nirasha Guruge and Emily Park will each strive for their second CSA All-America nods this winter. Guruge was the Ivy League Rookie of the Year and Harvard’s only first-team CSA All-American while Mashruwala, Park, Tiong and Williams all earned second-team honors in 2008-09. The Crimson will be led by a pair of senior captains in 2009-10, as Katharine O’Donnell and Johanna Snyder were elected by their teammates. Snyder was also the captain of last season’s squad.

Photo of Alisha Mashruwala courtesy of Gil Talbot.