Boston Wins Howe Cup over NYC
Oct 26, 2004, by Rob Dinerman, SquashTalk Independent News Service © 2004;

Boston A Team Repeats       [photo gallery]       [A results]
Playing with poise and confidence against a gritty but over-matched and fatigued New York squad that had barely made it through a grueling semi-final just a few hours earlier, a Boston 1 squad consisting of Harvard stand-out alumnae Margaret Elias, Hope Prockop and Carlin Wing backed by 2003 Howe Cup champion veterans Shona Kerr and captain Wendy Ansdell successfully defended the title Boston had won last year in Seattle. In securing the 4-1 final-round victory that culminated a hectic but hugely successful four-flight weekend, this quintet of women emulated the exploits of their baseball and football counterpart Red Sox and Patriots, thereby giving Boston a rare and exceedingly noteworthy "triple" over their respective New York opponents for the week.

Boston "A" team, the Winners: (l to r) Carlin Wing, Margaret Elias, Wendy Ansdell, Hope Prockop, Shona Kerr; photo © 2004 Debra Tessier.

The course of the final may well have been determined by the differing routes the two teams took in winning their semi-final meets. Boston 1 had a relatively pro forma 4-1 win over a Boston 2 squad three of whose members---namely Jeannie Blasberg, Orla Doherty and Susan Rafuse---had joined Kerr and Ansdell as members of the '03 championship line-up. Sue Lawrence defeated Wing at No. 3 to give Boston 2 their only point, and most of the other Boston 1 wins were accomplished in fairly routine fashion.

Meredeth Quick (NY) defeated Margaret Elias (Boston); photo © 2004 Debra Tessier.

By contrast, New York's 3-2 semi-final over Philadelphia was an extraordinarily hard-won outcome, one which would have been reversed had Philly's Amy Milanek been able to convert the fourth-game 8-7 match-ball she held against Julie Lilien in the No. 2 match. The latter was able to swat that match-ball away on a tight drop shot, jump-starting her to a 10-8 tally in that game and a swift 6-0 lead in the fifth. Milanek, who had already dropped a five-gamer to Prockop in the Pools part of the tournament, rallied to 5-6 but Lilien ran it out from there.

Her teammate Dana Betts also rallied from two games to one down at No. 4 against former Penn star Helen Bamber, and these comeback victories, complemented by Meredeth Quick's virtual repeat of the domination she had demonstrated 12 days earlier in a U. S. Open qualifier match against Louisa Hall at No. 1, gave the New Yorkers enough points to survive the pair of wins notched by Philadelphians Dawn Gray and Rina Borromeo over Victoria Wardle and Blair Clark Schoeb in the Nos. 3 and 5 slots respectively. But these matches took a definite toll especially on Lilien and Betts, both of whom were facing tough opponents in Prockop (who got exceptional length throughout her 3-0 win) and Kerr respectively and neither of whom was able to muster up enough energy or intensity to prevail.

Nor did Wardle, the only entrant to compete in both singles and doubles, who lost in four to Wing, or Schoeb, who pressed Ansdell to a fifth game but was out-played down the stretch. Quick won in a competitive three over Elias, but by that time the team outcome had been decided.

CONNECTICUT WINS THE B FLIGHT, PHILADELPHIA THE C's
[B Results]        [C Results]
In the B flight, which contained 13 team entries, half of the entire field, Connecticut defeated Philadelphia 4-1 in the final. Julie Walker, Jesse Anderson, Bridget Csapo, Liz Reynolds and Beatrice Querel comprised the victorious Connecticut squad which posted consecutive 4-1 wins over first Boston (which, like their A-level counterparts defeated New York in the third-place play-off) and then a Philadelphia team led by two former Yalies, Tracy Ball Greer and Priscilla Lukens, as well as Heather Unway, who gave Philadelphia its only point by winning at No. 3, Ann Hatfield and Andrea McNeely. Unlike the A and C draws, which drew teams only from the northeast corridor, the B event featured teams from as far afield as Houston and even Seattle.
The C tourney came down to a pair of intra-city match-ups in the semis, where Boston 1 opposed Boston 2 and Philadelphia 1 matched up against Philadelphia 2. The two "1" teams wound up facing each other in the final, where a Philadelphia squad consisting of Julie Kessler, Patti Spackman, Andrea Dutton, Penny Soppas and Cathy Popovitch won four matches to one over Bostonians Suzy Schwartz, Kerry Wellington, Dominique Farinaux-Dumas, Bernadette Dixon and Becky Lingard. Boston 2 beat Philadelphia 2 for third place.

The Doubles flight, making its debut in the 45-year history of this prestigious national team tournament, went to the Philadelphia pairing of Sue Green and Wendy Berry, who won in the final over Connecticut torch-bearers Icy Frantz and Stephanie Barrett.
 [Doubles Results]

The weekend had plenty of heroines in addition to those who carried off the trophies. Chief among these were co-chairs Libby Welch and Zoe Brunson, who were ubiquitous, tireless, selfless in sitting out the competition so that they could better run this mammoth, four-club (Harvard, Princeton, Yale and University) undertaking and immeasurably dedicated to making the entire event the remarkable success it proved to be. This included the festivities at the Saturday night dinner at the Beacon Restaurant, which USSRA CEO Palmer Page attended and during which the Achievement Bowl "for notably contribution to the sportsmanship of squash and the advancement of the game" and the Feron's Sportsmanship Award were presented to USSRA Treasurer Blasberg and Kat Van Blarcom respectively.

But ultimately in this annual celebration of women's squash the real stars were the participants themselves, ALL of the participants, close to 200 of them, who paid their $ 150 entry fee, competed in challenge matches for spots on their various regional teams and played their hearts out all weekend. By late Sunday afternoon everyone was exhausted but everyone as well was thrilled to have been a part of one of the true highlight events of the USSRA season.

[complete Doubles resuts]

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