Catching Up With Women's Squash Captains Anne Cheng and Liz Chu
10/13/2010 12:20:00 PM | Women's Squash
NEW YORK - With October 15 just two days away, the Columbia women's squash team prepares for its first official day of varsity practice in program history. Under head coach Kelsey Engman, the Lions will open to 2010-11 season on November 19 when they take on Princeton on the road.
Recently, gocolumbialions.com sat down with two of the team's captains to hear from them about being what the experience has been like so far to be a part of this transition from club status to a varsity team.
Anne Cheng is a senior Barnard student from Hong Kong and Liz Chu a junior in the College from New York City have both played on the Columbia squash club team since their freshmen years. Here is what they had to say.
What made you choose Columbia?
Anne: I like
that Columbia is in the city, but there is another world outside of the school. We have a great campus that you can
escape to if you want to while being in a large city, so we really get the best
of both worlds.
Liz: I chose Columbia based of the reputation of the university. It is one of the most well known academic institutions in the world, and its in New York City which gives students access to anything they like to do.
What is it like being part of the transition to varsity squash?
Anne: It's pretty exciting, because we've been waiting for
quite some time. Ever since my
freshman year, the idea of it going varsity has been there. I played on the
varsity team at my high school, so I'm excited to get back to that similar
mentality.
Liz: It's exciting to be able to say we were there at the beginning and the start of all this because we are essentially making history, and its nice to be there at the start.
With official practice starting soon, what have been some differences you've
noticed so far between last year and this year?
Anne: It's a
lot more serious and the mentality is different.
Liz: We're also excited to have new freshmen with us who bring a high level of commitment and its nice to hit the ground running all on the same page.
Any thoughts on the upcoming season?
Anne: We're excited to have fun and just experience it. I
think we have a chance to move up in the [national] rankings this year.
Liz: We're ready to work hard and we have a lot of depth added to the team with six new recruits. I think that will help us with the rankings and give us a huge leap compared to last year.
Talk a little bit about Street Squash.
Liz: We're really lucky to have a relationship with Street
Squash and be able to use their facility.
We get a lot out of it, not only in usage of the courts, but we also get
to volunteer and tutor kids on and off the court. Having a set practice space and courts will definitely help
build our team dynamic and bring our team closer. It's a beautiful facility and we're lucky to have it.
Anne: The facility is new with lots of courts which is great. On top of that, we're not just helping ourself, we're helping other people, which is something you don't get to do all the time.
Players Mentioned
