Women’s Squash Preview: Team strives to break into the top ten nationally
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| Junior Hannah Laverty is a key returner after playing in the No.1 spot last season. |
The 2009 women’s squash team is looking to fill some spots this season with a deeper and stronger lineup than last year’s. The team lost its number two, three and four players to graduation in 2008, but first-year head coach Pat Cosquer is confident his returners and first-years will move up the ladder and compete fiercely throughout the team’s tough schedule.
Last year’s team finished the season ranked 12th in the country. The 2009 squad and their new coach are setting their sights on a top 10 finish this season.
Cosquer will look to his group of seasoned returners to guide the team. Senior captain Margot Webel (Locust Valley, N.Y.) and fellow seniors Sarah Blomstedt (Gill, Mass.) and Sophie Runquist (Kent, Conn.) will provide leadership to this year’s team. Also expected to continue their success and growth from last season are juniors Hannah Laverty (Brooklyn, N.Y.) and Whitney Roller (Haverford, Pa.), as well as sophomores Stephanie Cabot (Dover, Mass.) and Anna Hogeland (Williamstown, Mass.).
The Bobcats have added a few other talented players to this year’s roster including first-year Mimi Neal (Danvers, Mass.), a former No. 1 player at Tabor Academy, as well as senior Virginia Schippers (Brooklyn, N.Y.) and sophomore Emily Russell (Queensbury, N.Y.).
The women have to wait awhile until they kick off their season on January 9th against Cornell University at Yale University. The women are also looking forward to hosting the Maine Round Robin in early February. “The team will be wearing pink to raise awareness for Breast Cancer Research, and will scrimmage the University of Toronto and play Tufts and George Washington during the weekend-long event,” Cosquer noted about the highly anticipated tournament.
In the meantime, Cosquer will have the women training hard to prepare to make a run for the top ten this season. “I expect the women to work hard, have fun and get out of the season what they put into it.”