USA Falls to Hosts Holland
Oct 1, 2004, Rob Dinerman; SquashTalk Independent News Service © 2004;

     [cup draw and results]    [pools detailed results]

Hard-Fought Effort Falls Short  [Semi final Bronstein report]

Latasha Khan was outmatched against world #3 Vanessa Atkinson. photo © 2004 Fritz Borchert

After a hard-fought 2-1 win over Hong Kong Wednesday afternoon that got them into the eight-team championship draw, and a hard-fought though 3-0 quarter-final loss to New Zealand yesterday, the U. S. women engaged in their third well-contested battle in as many days when they faced the host Dutch squad, only to again fall agonizingly and barely short, when Louisa Hall was unable to convert the pivotal match.

The Americans will now oppose Ireland in the 7th/8th place play-off tomorrow on the concluding day of the tournament, which will be highlighted when Australia and England, the top two seeds, meet to determine the 2004 World Team Champion.

Each of these trio of down-to-the-wire meets involving the Americans have been defined by the team's outstanding depth, as five-time and current U. S.
national champion Latasha Khan has faced daunting match-ups at No. 1, losing sequentially to Rebecca Chiu, Shelley Kitchen and Vanessa Atkinson, all of whom out-rank Khan in the WISPA world rankings. Atkinson in fact presently occupies the No. 3 position, and is coming off one of the best extended stretches of her noteworthy career, and Khan did well to push her as far as she did, especially in the third game of their 33-minute match, which went to Atkinson by a score of 9-3, 4 and 7.

ATKINSONS WINS QUICKLY FIRST
Atkinson's victory was fully expected, which put the pressure of Meredeth Quick and Louisa Hall, who had both contributed big wins to the 2-1 triumph over Hong Kong, in Hall's case after trailing Joey Chan two games to love. The recent Harvard graduate had then almost defeated Kiwi national champion Tansyn Leevey in yesterday's dead rubber, which Hall led 7-2 in the deciding game before bowing to Leevey's determined 7-0 match-ending run.

HALL AND KRONEMEYER IN TAUT BATTLE
Today Hall battled Netherlands torch-carrier Karen Kronemeyer for nearly a full hour in a battle whose undulating 8-10 9-7 9-7 9-5 graph fully conveys the taut nature of the exchanges, especially in the closing points of those two pivotal 9-7 games, before Kronemeyer was finally able to secure the fourth and final game. [See Bronstein's commentary]

Hall, like Khan, has now played in all six team matches, and cumulative fatigue, as well as the recency of her ongoing recovery from the nasty ankle sprain she incurred in the Pan American Federation games earlier this summer in Mexico, may have played a role in the airtight defeats she has suffered these past two days. But the fourth American team member, Michelle Quibell, has been trying to play through a hamstring injury for nearly a month, and her inability to convert a two games to love lead against her New Zealand opponent yesterday leaves team coach Demer Holleran with something of a conundrum in deciding the line-up tomorrow against an Ireland team that will provide stiff competition for the U. S. under any circumstance.

The dead rubber match at No. 2 saw Meredeth Quick, who sat out the New Zealand meet, give a good account of herself against WISPA tour veteran Annelize Naude before falling 9-6 10-8. Quick should be fresh for tomorrow's match against the Irish, who are paced by Madeline Perry at No. 1 in what shapes up at least on paper as yet another meet involving the Americans that could go either way.

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