USA Falls to New Zealand
Sept 30, 2004, Rob Dinerman; SquashTalk Independent News Service © 2004;

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New Zealand Reaches Top Four   [Quarterfinal Bronstein report]

Michelle Quibell couldn't hold on against Jacqui Hawkes photo © 2004 Fritz Borchert

Jacqui Hawkes rallied from two games to love down against Yale junior Michelle Quibelle to clinch a quarter-final victory for New Zealand over the U. S. this afternoon in the World Team Championships in Amsterdam.

Quibell, the reigning Intercollegiate Individual who led the Elis last winter to their first Howe Cup championship in a dozen years, was making her first competitive appearance of the tournament after struggling for more than a month with a nagging hamstring injury, and the resultant ring rust cost her dearly as her early lead faded away under Hawkes's determined charge in the backstretch.

This No. 3 match was the second of the meet, and a must-win for the Americans after Latasha Khan's opening 9-7, 2 and 1 loss to top-10 ranked Shelley Kitchen. Khan's best chance came in the first game against Kitchen, often a slow starter who also appeared to be still feeling the effects, both physical and psychological, of her previous day's noteworthy breakthrough win over hometown favorite Vanessa Atkinson, the world's No. 3 player and a huge favorite in her host country. Once Kitchen managed to pull through that first game, she evinced increased confidence moving a progressively deflated Khan to the front wall and forcing loose balls which she seized upon for countering winners.

This outcome put greater pressure on Quibell, whose prowess in clutch team events was amply displayed last January, where her four-game victory over two-time Intercollegiate champion Amina Helal enabled Yale to dethrone defending Intercollegiate team champion Trinity. And for awhile it seemed that she was fully up to the challenge, lobbing and driving Hawkes to the back and hurting her with well-executed drop shots. But as Hawkes began to find her stride in mid-match, Quibelle's confidence in both her game and her conditioning level faltered and she became increasingly on the defensive due to her lack of recent play. By the fifth game, Hawkes had all the momentum and she raced exuberantly through the final lap of her 5-9 7-9 9-3 9-3 9-0 comeback effort, thereby administering a bitter pill for a U. S. team that just one day earlier had been at the other, and winning, end of a clinching five-game win from 0-2 down when Louisa Hall had successfully rallied from a similar deficit against Joey Chan on Hong Kong.

Upon seeing her former college rival Quibell assume her early lead, Hall herself had hoped to be in a position to replicate her one-day-old heroine's role in the meet-ending No. 2 match, which Hawkes's turnaround reduced to a best-of-three dead rubber. Hall's opponent, Tamsyn Leevey, was coming off her best-ever career win a few weeks ago, when she defeated her heavily favored and much higher ranked compatriot Kitchen in the final of the New Zealand national championships. In the 9-2 first game, she took advantage of Hall's tendency to go too quickly for winners, but in the second Hall worked the point much better, found her length and scored frequently on volley drops, the same weapon that served her so well against Chan, and surged to a 9-5 equalizer.

The third game was a battle all the way, with Hall forging out a 7-2 lead and serving notice that she will be a factor on the WISPA tour this season but the more experienced Leevey ultimately prevailing, albeit barely, by a 9-7 margin. This was the best match of the meet and would have been even more exciting had its pair of predecessors not made the outcome superfluous even before it began.

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