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Princeton University Athletics
1998- 99 Women's Squash Review
September 10, 1999 | Women's Squash
What could be better than a perfect season and a national championship? How about an imperfect season, a national championship and some big-time drama?
The Princeton women's squash team made it two straight national titles in 1999. Unlike 1998, however, this one didn't come without some anxious moments.
Princeton won its first 10 regular-season matches this past winter. In many ways, the season didn't start until the 11th match.
Before all that, there was the matter of setting up the big finish. Princeton's toughest match in the first 10 was a 7-2 verdict over previously unbeaten and third-ranked Pennsylvania at Jadwin Gym. Those two individual losses to Penn, by the way, marked the only two losses Princeton would have in an Ivy League match heading into a Valentine's Day match at home against Harvard.
To say that Princeton and Harvard are arch-rivals is an understatement. Either Princeton or Harvard has been the national champion every year but three since 1975. Harvard had a streak of five straight national titles ended in 1998 by Princeton, the teams were unbeaten and ranked 1-2 when they met at Jadwin in the regular season.
Princeton picked up wins at No. 1 by Julia Beaver, No. 3 by Blair Irwin, No. 4 by Meredith Quick and No. 5 by Liz Kelly, but Harvard took 2-6-7-8-9 for a 5-4 verdict.
Down but not out, the Tigers headed the following week to the brand-new Murr Center in Cambridge, temporary home of the Howe Cup national championships while Yale's facility was undergoing a face-lift. Harvard, now top-ranked, was the No. 1 seed, Princeton was seeded second.
Princeton opened with a 9-0 win over Brown and then knocked off Penn 7-2 again to advance to the championship match against the waiting Crimson. In the first round of matches, Harvard won in three games at No. 2 and No. 6 while Quick won in three games at No. 4 to make it 2-1 Harvard. Princeton's Avery Coleman and Harvard's Blair Endresen played a marathon match at No. 8 that carried over into the second group of matches, and Coleman scored a huge win for the Tigers. The senior won the first two games 9-4, 9-4 before Endresen fought back with a pair of 9-7 wins to even it. Coleman then won the deciding game 9-5.
Beaver won easily at No. 1, as did Irwin at No. 3. Lindsay Wilber of Harvard, however, defeated Liz Kelly in three games, and it was 4-3 with two matches still in play.
Harvard appeared to have the edge at the No. 7 match, where Leah Ramella would defeat Bebeth Schenk in four games. That left it all up to the No. 9 match, where Princeton senior Meghan Murphy—who had played in the exhibition No. 10 match when the teams had met seven days earlier—was taking on Harvard sophomore Virginia Brown.
After dropping the first game 9-4, Murphy came back to take the next two 10-8 and 9-3. Brown evened it with a 9-4 win in the fourth game, and, though Ramella and Schenk were still on the court, it looked like it was to be one game for the national championship.
Murphy then showed that a win at No. 9 counts as much a match at No. 1, as she took the deciding point with a 9-6 win in the fifth game.
With a second national title in hand, Princeton was left to compete at the individual championships. The Tigers advanced four of their six entries to the third round as Beaver, No. 2 player Elise O'Connell, Irwin and Quick all made it to the Sweet 16. Beaver, though, was the only Princeton player to make it past there.
Beaver then put a cap on her perfect season with a win over Dana Betts of Bowdoin in the quarterfinals, a very tough five-game win over Jessica DeMauro of Penn in the semifinals — the deciding game was 9-3 —?and a solid 9-2, 9-6, 7-9, 10-8 win over No. 2 Devon Kennedy of Brown in the championship match.
1998-99 Results
| 11/22 | at Cornell | W | 9-0 |
| vs. McMaster @ | W | 8-1 | |
| 12/5 | BROWN | W | 9-0 |
| 1/10 | FR. & MARSHALL | W | 9-0 |
| 1/24 | vs. Williams # | W | 9-0 |
| at Amherst | W | 9-0 | |
| 1/25 | at Trinity | W | 7-2 |
| 1/27 | PENNSYLVANIA | W | 7-2 |
| 2/6 | at Yale | W | 9-0 |
| 2/13 | DARTMOUTH | W | 9-0 |
| 2/14 | HARVARD | L | 4-5 |
| 2/19 | vs. Brown % | W | 9-0 |
| 2/20 | vs. Pennsylvania | W | 7-2 |
| 2/21 | vs. Harvard | W | 5-4 |
@ - at Ithaca, N.Y.
# - at Amherst, Mass.
% - at Howe Cup Tournament, Cambridge, Mass.