Lawrencevile, N.J. - The Mount Holyoke squash team shouldered a tough 8-1 loss to Colby College in the semifinals of the Epps Cup (D Division) at the 2017 CSA Squash Team Championships on Saturday afternoon. MHC is now 8-17 overall, while the Mules improve to 12-15.
The match opened at three with MHC senior Allison Shilling (New Canaan, Conn./Choate Rosemary Hall) dropping an 11-2, 11-8, 11-8 match to first year Julianna Song (Greenwich, Conn./Greenwich Academy). Mules senior Caroline Pelham (Coconut Grove, Fla./Ransom Everglades School) bested sophomore Tanishka Sachidanand (Karnataka, India/Canadian International School) by an 11-1, 11-2, 11-6 margin. At the nine spot, Colby junior Elise O'Brien (Cos Cob, Conn./Brooks School) defeated junior Kirina Gair-MacMichael (West Hartford, Conn./Ethel Walker School) by a score of 11-0, 11-3, 11-5 to go up 3-0.
In the second group sophomore Nadindhi Udangawa (Colombo, Sri Lanka/Colombo International School) picked up the Lyons lone win by a 5-11, 11-5, 11-4, 11-5 margin over first year Madiha Molani (Lake Zurich, Ill./Lake Zurich). At the five, junior Emily Chang (Carmichael, Calif./Mira Loma) won the first game, but eventually fell 7-11, 11-7, 11-4, 11-8 to junior Crickit Di Galoma (Greenwich, Conn./Westminister School). Colby senior Ren Robinson (Old Lyme, Conn./Brooks School) picked up the deciding win at the eight with an 11-3, 11-7, 11-4 victory over senior Amanda Lee (Windsor, Conn./Ethel Walker School) to go up 5-1.
In the final group, junior Devin Mullaney (Boston, Mass./Dana Hall School) defeated Brandy Williamson (New York, N.Y./Thurgood Marshall Academy) at the top of the ladder (11-7, 11-4, 11-3), while sophomore Olivia Silverman (New Canaan, Conn./Berkshire School) took a 7-1 lead with an 11-5, 12-10, 11-5 win over sophomore Lessly Portillo (New Haven, Conn./Hill Regional Career Magnet). In the final match of the day, sophomore Lily Wain (Milton, Mass./Dexter Southfield) defeated senior Rose Minichiello (Collinsvile, Conn./Canton) (11-0, 11-5, 11-5) for the 8-1 victory.
Mount Holyoke returns to action on Sunday morning when they face-off against Wellesley College at 9am at the Lawrenceville School. The two teams will be playing to determine the third/fourth place finish in this year's Epps Cup.
