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Trinity Women Take Howe Cup and Earn National Title


Feb 17, 2002 (revised Feb 18th) © 2002 Ron Beck, photos: © 2002 Debra Tessier. May not be reproduced online or in print without permission.

Trinity Edges Harvard For the Crown - full story

28 Teams Gather in New Haven for the the Largest Howe Cup Ever

The newest WISA team, the Stanford Women's Squash Team, didn't win a match at this year's Howe cup competition - but their participation helped make this the largest Howe Cup ever.

At the other end of the spectrum, the elite teams of Harvard and Trinity quietly were in preparation for their showdown Sunday afternoon for the National Title. Spies for SquashTalk uncovered a possible secret weapon - Trinity's breakfast of Quaker Oats. Unlike last year, when Harvard reversed their dual-match loss to top Trinity in the Howe competition, this year Trinity won both prizes - the regular season championship and the post-season title. It was an unprecedented and important win for the Bantams --- the first time a non-Ivy team has won the Howe Cup since the tournament was established.

Trinity's Lynn Leong (r) had too much court savvy for Harvard's Margaret Elias (l)

Trinity's Amina Helal (l) came back to close the door on Harvard's Louisa Hall(r)

Harvard's Lindsey Wilkins (r) was extremely impressive (here against Pam Saunders)

The evenly-matched Harvard and Trinity teams took to the Glass-walled Yale courts with nervous anticipation. The climatic match turned out to be at the #1 position, where confident and experienced Trinity #1 Amina Helal was faced with a 1-0 deficit against popular Harvard #1 Louisa Hall. But Helal proved to be just too strong for Hall, charging back to take the next three games while surrendering only five points over those three games. It was the decisive victory for Trinity, giving them the match and the championship.

The match started auspiciously for Harvard. They took an early two matches to one lead, led by the strong play from their personable #4, Carlin Wing, who closed out valiant Samantha Lewins at #4 with two closing 9-0 games after the two had played virtually evenly through two frames. Also winning for Harvard at #8 was Hilary Thorndike, taking a win that Harvard had to have over Trinity #8 Meridy Volmer. After Trinity's effervescent Lynn Leong, an almost unbeatable #2, easily and expectedly downed Margaret Elias, Harvard's captain -- the key became Clare Austin at #6.

AUSTIN GETS FINAL POINT
Austin, who had played the previous matchup with Harvard at #9, had a harder time against the inspired Wichter. Wichter, who on paper would have no chance against the talented and experienced Englishwoman Austin, came to play. She took the second and third games, earning a 2-1 advantage.

Austin, who had been practicing under a strictly curtailed regimen, due to a serious stress syndrome in her leg, was an unknown quantity in a five game situation. It had been a full three weeks since she had taken the court in anything like this situation. But facing a do-or-die situation she showed strong determination and put herself into a marathon fifth game.

And it was anyone's game in the fifth. Each player had at least four match points. Finally, as fans became more and more anxious, Austin gave the relieved Trinity faithful (including a strong contingent from the men's team) the final point in gave five that gave her the 10-9 fifth game win and kept Trinity even at 2-2 after the first four.

With Harvard's dominating Lindsey Wilkins at #3, Harvard also favored at #5 behind Colby Hall, and Helal for Trinity expected to win at #1, the key was going to be at the 7 and 9 positions.

Unfortunately for Harvard, Bronwyn Cooper at #7 for Trinity out-battled Steph Hendricks for Harvard, and took a key four game match, while Carolanne Minkowski at 9 (sister of Princeton Camptain Anna Minkowski) simply blasted Harvard #8 Wadhwa off the court.

HELAL CLINCHES, WILKINS STRONG
This left the stage set for Helal. "I have incredible confidence in Amina, and I've seen her drop first games before," said Bartlett, in a post-match interview with the press. "I knew that she was the better player and would find a way to win." Helal did, closing the door rapidly on Louisa Hall.

After that ending, it was a belated bittersweet win for Wilkins at #3. Wilkins, who boasted at least a 10" height advantage over Trinity Pam Saunders, bolstered that with a nifty short game, picked up from the Harvard coaching duo of Bajwa and Ayaz. With a well selected use of power, volleying and touch Wilkins kept Saunders at bay. In a match featuring a lot of contact and jockeying for position, Wilkins prevalied to keep the match at 5-4, but it was too late for Harvard in 2002.

"It was a great win for us," said Trinity Coach Wendy Bartlett. "Coming back two weeks later and beating Harvard again was huge for our program. The local press (The Hartford Courant) and the opposing teams have been great in their support of our accomplishment. Now we have to prepare for next year, when both Harvard and Yale will be teams to beat."

OTHER HIGHPOINTS
There were plenty of other great moments during the weekend. Dartmouth and Williams each capped a great season, both exceeding their pre-season expectations, with Dartmouth reaching fifth and Williams sixth.

While Penn earned a ninth place finish (a long fall from #1 two years ago, though they are in a rebuilding phase with five freshmen in their lineup) Colby played really well to earn 13th place, while Vassar took the 17th place trophy. And Stanford did great to compete with all the eastern teams, and took a few individual points.

Draw and Results        Sunday  Photos        Bowdoin's Weekend

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