By Gary Dzen
Staff Writer


The women’s squash team had a terrific run over the past two weeks, winning all eight of their matches and capturing the Kurtz Cup title for the first time in school history.

The Kurtz cup is the championship tournament of the Howe cup for teams ranked ninth through sixteenth in the country, and was held at Yale two weeks ago. Bates reached the finals of the Kurtz in both 2002 and 2003 but the title remained elusive.

“We wanted to take home the bigger trophy this year,” said Bates coach John Illig.

The Bobcats came into this year’s tournament as the top seed and did not disappoint, beating Mount Holyoke 8-1 on Friday, Colby 7-2 on Saturday, and Amherst 5-4 on Sunday in the championship match.

The Amherst match was particularly exciting. Adding to the close margin of victory, three of the four matches that Bates lost against Amherst went to 5 games.

Jenny Loring, playing on stadium court at the third position, posted a strong victory, defeating Amherst’s Caroline Shannon 9-3, 9-6, 10-8 to improve her season record to 11-6.

“Everyone really stepped up to meet the challenge,” said rookie Kelsey Engman. “Although we beat Amherst during the season we all knew that they would be a tough match. Everyone really played hard which made it a great victory.”

The fifth through ninth positions for the Bobcats were strong as usual, with Sarah Persing, Kristin Brush, Maggie Smith, and Liz Wagoner all earning victories. For Brush it was particularly sweet, as she earned the victory in the last match of her career.

“Kristen Brush has done a great job as captain all year,” said Illig. “Still, she was the only senior in our top ten, and so we look forward to some great results next year, too”

The Kurtz Cup win was obviously the highlight, but the Bobcats came into the weekend with a lot of momentum.

Bates entered the tournament with a string of wins over Colby, St. Lawrence, Tufts, Hamilton, and Connecticut College. The last three wins were all by 9-0 scores, exemplifying the depth and talent throughout the Bates squad.

“It’s been a total team effort,” Illig said of the season.

The team closed the season with a ten-straight win streak, bringing their record to an impressive 14-3 against national caliber competition like Yale, Dartmouth, Cornell, Williams and Amherst.

The remainder of the season is for individual nationals, where the Bobcats hope that their team success can carry over into individual success. The women have clearly established themselves in the upper echelon of collegiate women’s squash, and have high expectations for the program next year.

“It feels wonderful to be able to take a ten match win streak into next year,” said Illig. “No one can take that away from us now. It will be hard for us to break into that elite group, the top eight, but we will give it a shot next year.”

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