The women’s squash team opened their season last weekend at the Eastern Sectionals hosted by McGill University. Last season the Gaels brought home an OUA silver medal, and this year they are hoping to find similar success.
The format of the Eastern Sectionals takes six players from each team and ranks them from one to six. Each player plays the corresponding player on the opposing team, and team with the most individual wins is granted the victory.
In their first match the Gaels battled with the U of T Varsity Blues, last year’s OUA champions. Michelle Craig, Vicky Marrack and Diana Newman all won their matches in the first, second and third positions respectively. However, U of T prevailed over Alexis Twiddy, Christy Lotz and Allison Verney in the fourth, fifth and sixth respective positions, and the match was declared an even draw.
In their second match the Gaels met the McGill Redmen. The team beat the Redmen in all six positions en route to a decisive victory.
U of T—who also beat McGill—was handed the overall victory for the Sectional, as they had more individual wins than Queen’s. Each individual matchup is a best-of-five format, and in U of T’s three wins against Queen’s they swept their opponents three games to none. The Gaels also won three matchups against the Varsity Blues, but only swept two, and won their final victory three games to one. As a result of that one individual loss—since both Queen’s and U of T swept McGill—U of T finished the day with one more victory than Queen’s.
Marrack, the team captain, said she is confident that the team is on its way to another successful season.
“Last year we came second behind U of T, and [Craig] and I were OUA first-team all-stars,” she said. “We only lost one player to graduation last season, so we still expect to be on top.”
Marrack explained that the team is made up of 10 , seven of whom travel to tournaments. In the tournament all seven players compete, with the sixth position alternating between the sixth and seventh-seeded players.
The Gaels will be back in action at the Western Sectionals on Jan. 14, where they will take on McMaster and Western in Toronto. After the Western Sectionals, the top five teams in the league will move on to the OUA finals to battle for the gold medal.
The young men’s team lost to both U of T and McGill by identical 1-5 margins. Sean Horton was the bright spot for Queen’s, winning both of his matches, including a 10-9 victory against U of T after trailing 8-2 in the fifth set and going on an 8-1 run to earn the win. Both teams now look ahead to the Western Sectionals in January.
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