Photo courtesy of Mount Holyoke Athletics.
Mount Holyoke Square was defeated 9-0 in the match against William Smith College on Nov. 19.
By Zellie Calavita ’26
Staff Writer
Mount Holyoke College Squash was defeated 9-0 in a match against William Smith College at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Nov. 19, making the Lyons’ record on the season 1-1.
Tagyaa Parakh ’27 competed at the No. 1 position for Mount Holyoke, initially losing the first two games 11-3 and 11-5, respectively. The third game was more competitive, with Parakh prevailing 11-9, but the match ultimately ended in a 3-1 loss after falling 11-1 in the fourth and final game.
The Lyons struggled throughout the rest of the game, failing to win any of their matches against William Smith. According to the College Squash Association, William Smith’s squash team is ranked 17th in the nation.
“I think the main thing we can learn from this match is that squash courts are different in every place, so we will become better players by learning how to adapt in these environments as the season progresses,” Em Brandon ’27 said. “I also think that we learned there really is a wide range of skills we will be playing against, so we all have things we need to work on.”
“I was pretty happy with the team performance,” Kat Sloop ’26 said of the game. “Although we didn’t have any overall wins, everyone performed beautifully. Winning is nice, but we all set personal goals relating to squash that we all achieved, and I think that’s a testament to how strong of a team we are.”
Brandon added that they “think the team is doing really well.”
“I am impressed by the energy everyone had after the long trip to MIT,” they said.
Sloop went on to express their appreciation for the environment that the team works to create. “The team atmosphere has been quite welcoming. With any group setting it can be difficult to adjust to varying dynamics, but the squash team has been an incredibly friendly place,” Sloop said.
“So far the team has been nothing short of wonderful,” Brandon said, echoing Sloop’s sentiment. “We are a fairly small team composed of a large group of new players — most of the team being first-years with a couple of people new to squash — and everyone is always so supportive.” Sloop also hopes to see new faces on the squash court. “I also want to invite everyone to open squash on Monday and Wednesday evenings, 6:30-8:00 pm,” they said. “People really don’t know what squash is, so I encourage everyone to come and try it out.”
Squash’s next match is on Jan. 16 against Wesleyan University at MIT.