Photo courtesy of Mount Holyoke Athletics.
Habiba Abouelatta ’26 competed in the CSA Individual Championship on Friday, March 3rd, 2023.
By Lauren Leese ’23
Staff Writer
Mount Holyoke Squash newcomers Habiba Abouelatta ’26, Tina Mei ’26 and Ku Paw ’26 played in the College Squash Association Individual Championship last weekend. The competition took place from Friday, March 3, to Sunday, March 5, at the Arlen Specter U.S. Squash Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Abouelatta took on the individual championship tournament on Friday, competing for the Holleran Cup: B Division West as the 16th seed. The draw put Abouelatta against the Holleran West’s highest-ranked player, Margot Prow of Drexel University. Prow won the match with scores of 11-1, 11-2 and 11-1. Abouelatta then played in the First Consolation draw that night, facing off against the University of Pennsylvania’s Natasha Pensler, who entered the competition ranked eighth in the division. Pensler prevailed with scores of 11-5, 11-8 and 11-2.
Friday’s competition rounded off Abouelatta’s first season of college play, which saw Abouelatta competing at the No.1 position for Mount Holyoke. Her record stands at 10-8.
Also on March 3, Paw and Mei competed in the Doubles Championship against Isabel Kelly and Nikita Srivastava from Williams College. The team from Williams won the match with scores of 11-5, 11-5 and 11-3.
Paw achieved an individual first-year season record of 7-15, playing at the No. 3 spot for the Lyons. Mei’s first college Squash season resulted in an 8-14 record at the No. 4 position.
Last weekend’s championships constituted the Lyons’ last competition until the 2023-24 season starts up in the fall.