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Women's US National Team Trials June 14th - 16th
by Eileen Schneider © 2002 SquashTalk

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June 7, 2002 © 2002      

USA 2002 Women's Team Preview

Women's competition has recently been considered America's most promising entre into the world squash scene. The US currently places 5 players in the WISPA top 100, while the Dave McNeely at 103 is the highest-ranked American in the PSA. On the junior level, US teams have placed 5th and 4th in the two most recent Junior Women's World Championships. Many attribute this to the team's depth rather than any superstar power.

This past success will hopefully translate to a crop of young stars combining with veterans to create formidable teams for the 2002 Women's World Championships in Denmark in the fall and the Fed Cup in Ecuador slated for July. The Fed Cup is particularly important as it determines the seedings for next year's Pan-Am games where the US expects to compete for gold.

Four Athletes, One Dream

Latasha Khan - top ranking USA women's player.

The four-woman National team will be selected next weekend in Seattle. As it stands following the selection events and training camp, the 8 remaining candidates are, in ranked order: WISPA #27 Latasha Khan, WISPA # 61 Meredeth Quick, WISPA # 71 Ivy Pochoda, WISPA # 35 Shabana Khan, Harvard number one and 2000 Junior Women's National team member, Louisa Hall, Harvard captain Margaret Elias, Hope Prokop, playing out of Groton MA, notable as the oldest hopeful and the only potential player who also has a child, and WISPA # 56 Dana Betts. Athletes selected for the National team may choose to play in either one or both of the upcoming matches: the July Fed Cup in sunny Ecuador and the November Women's World Championships in Denmark.

In November 2001 the list of 12 candidates was generated. By December, the USSRA had doled out US$ 8000 in grants to 5 players and the committee was collecting match-play results. The criteria included 4 appearances at selection events, one being the Nationals in March (Where Latasha Khan defeated Meredeth Quick in the finals). Of the players on the initial candidates list, 8 will be invited to the Seattle Athletic Club Downtown for the trials June 14th-16th.

Harvard squash alumnae Margaret Elias (l) and Ivy Pochoda

Round Robins That Will Make Your Head Spin
The trials will consist of eight players divided into two pools of four each. There will be round robins in each pool, with the winners (determined by most matches won) playing each other for 1st place and the losers playing each other for 7th place. The 2nd and 3rd players in each pool will play 2 additional matches outside of their pools to determine the 3rd-6th place finishers. Ties will be broken by head-to-head results, games-won, and possibly points-won. I know its complicated, I had to act it out possible scenarios with hair brushes.

Beaver Re-builds Dam

Julia Beaver was sidelined for most of the past year.

However, the selections are not complete without a plot twist. Julia Beaver has been almost absent from squash for over a year due to enforced medical time off but would have been an immediate candidate given her past success. Beaver's most recent accolades include three intercollegiate individual titles and 2 national team championships for Princeton. She returned to action in last month's Hyder Trophy tournament and fought her way to the finals. While her return to competition was too late to participate in Nationals or fulfill the other three appearances needed to qualify for the trials, Beaver still has the chance to compete at the trials if she wins a playoff series this weekend, June 7th, 8th, and 9th.

Dana Betts in Playoff with Julia Beaver

Beaver will challenge 8th-ranked Dana Betts for the last spot invited to trials. Besides facing off for a chance to represent our great nation on the international stage, Beaver and Betts grew up training together at Brooklyn's Heights Casino. According to Betts, the two have been best friends since second grade.

As The Squash World Turns
The selection process for the National team has met revision and controversy in the past, and many of the names and faces are familiar. Following the 1999 trials (which chose a team for the Pan-Am games) Beaver appealed the selections for the national team on the basis that the outcome was manipulated. The appeal asserted that the Khan sisters did not play with full effort in their match against each other, and thus awarded more games to Shabana than she might have earned. Beaver and Shabana Khan were tied in matches-won following the trials and Khan won the fourth and final spot in the roster by a games-won tiebreaker.

The Women's Committee that ran the trials accepted the appeal and changed their recommendation. However, the appeal was not accepted by the USSRA and the original team of Demer Holleran, Berkeley Belknap and both Khan sisters was ratified. That team went on to the 1999 Pan-Am games and a silver medal.

This year's trials will provide a deep mix of veteran and younger players from which to select the Fed Cup and World Championship teams. The potential of US Women's squash well represented by this large group of elite players each poised to make their team an international contender.

Louisa Hall	Women's Open finalist Meridith Quick

Shabana Khan (white shirt) and Hope Prokop

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