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Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

SQUASH | No. 18 Hoyas Take 4th in the Mid-Atlantic Conference Championships

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Heading into the Mid-Atlantic Conference Championship on Feb. 4, the No. 18 Georgetown University women’s squash team knew it was in for a dogfight. The Hoyas faced several highly ranked teams, and the stiff competition proved to be a challenge for Georgetown, who finished fourth out of the six teams in the tournament. 

The Hoyas (14-9) ended their regular season with three wins the weekend prior, sweeping both No. 25 Haverford College and No. 31 Vassar College 9-0 Jan. 28. Georgetown also narrowly defeated No. 22 Chatham University 5-4 on Jan. 29. With these wins, the Hoyas have already improved upon their win total from their 2021-22 launching season.

The Hoyas’ first matchup was the No. 4 Drexel University Dragons (10-2), a team that had swept them 0-9 less than a month prior. While they suffered yet another 0-9 loss to the Dragons, the resilient Hoyas regrouped and fought their way to a nail-biting 5-4 victory over the No. 19 Franklin & Marshall Diplomats (6-10). This victory propelled them to the third-place game against the No. 12 Stanford Cardinal (5-5) the next day, where they fought valiantly but lost 3-6.

Drexel has historically been one of the top squash schools in the nation, and is ranked in the top four nationally along with Trinity College, Harvard University and Princeton University. The Dragons have 14 rostered players to Georgetown’s 11 and also feature some of the best individual players in the country. 

In their first game of the tournament against this elite team, the Hoyas were thoroughly outmatched. Through nine matches at Boar’s Head Sports Club in Albemarle County, Va., each member of the team played well, but none were able to secure a victory in any games or matches. 

Against a top 20 Franklin & Marshall College team, however, the Hoyas came out strong, looking to rebound from their loss to Drexel. First-year Sydney Bramen, already one of the top players on the team, clawed back from a looming two-loss deficit to secure a 3-2 win. 

Bramen’s comeback turned out to be the decisive performance for the Hoyas, as graduate student Vedika Arunachalam, junior Caroline Wilcox and sophomores Aalia Husain and Nina Flinn all swept their opponents 3-0. They propelled Georgetown to a narrow 5-4 victory and brought the team to the third-place game that Sunday against Stanford.

GU Hoyas | The No. 18 Hoyas placed fourth in the Mid-Atlantic Conference Championships after a win against Franklin & Marshall and losses against Drexel and Stanford.

In the key matchup against another top 20 team in the Cardinal, standout sophomores Husain and Flinn blanked their opponents yet again, taking home two huge wins for Georgetown. Senior Sarah Conner also swept her matchup, giving the Hoyas three wins. However, after a physically, mentally and emotionally taxing two games, Georgetown came up short, falling 3-6 and narrowly missing the podium. 

At the conclusion of the tournament, the College Squash Association (CSA) designated the Mid-Atlantic Squash Conference (MASC) as a “fully recognized and sanctioned squash conference within the CSA organization,” according to a Feb. 9 press release from the CSA. The conference, which first achieved provisional status in 2019, has since expanded to include Georgetown in the 2021-22 season. 

The women’s division now includes teams from Dickinson College, Drexel, Franklin & Marshall college, Stanford and the University of Virginia, as well as Georgetown. MASC is now the fourth NCAA conference to sponsor squash competition, joining the Ivy League, Liberty League and the New England Small College Athletic Conference.

The Hoyas will now look toward the College Squash Association National Championships in Philadelphia, Pa., on Feb. 17, where Head Coach Tim Lasusa led them to a second-place ranking in the Epps Division last year. Lasusa, a former star player at St. Lawrence University, served as the assistant coach for the women and men’s team at Yale University, helping them to top three and top five finishes, respectively.  

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