Women's Squash Gears For Three-Match Weekend
1/7/2015 1:47:00 PM | Women's Squash
NEW YORK – This weekend, the No. 9 Columbia women's squash team will be back in action after the holiday break to face three top-15 opponents. Up first, the Lions will travel to Hartford, Connecticut to take on the defending national champions No. 2 Trinity on Friday, Jan. 9 at 1 p.m.
Columbia will follow its road match with a two-day homestand at the SL Green StreetSquash Center against Ivy League competition. On Saturday, Jan. 10, the Lions will host No. 4 Yale for a 12 p.m. match and will return on Sunday, Jan. 11 at 11 a.m. to cap the weekend against No. 11 Brown
Follow the action with live results available throughout the home matches HERE.
LAST TIME OUT: Columbia faced a tough challenge hosting No. 6 Cornell to begin Ivy League play in its home opener on Sunday, Dec. 7. Coming into the match, the Big Red were 3-0 while blanking all its opponents and the Lions would suffer the same defeat. The 0-9 match handed Columbia its first loss of season as they move to 2-1, 0-1 in the Ivy League.
The Lions quickly bounced back hours later to deliver the same feat to New York University. Columbia defeated NYU 8-0 to grab its third win of the season to improve to 3-1 overall.
INSIDE THE SERIES: Head Coach Jacques Swanepoel returns to his alma mater Trinity on Friday looking to defeat his former coach Paul Assainate, as he leads the Lions against the Bantams. These two teams will face each other for the first time in program history.
Last season, on Jan. 12, Columbia added monumental program achievement in its trip to face Brown in the teams' last meeting. The Lions grabbed its first Ivy League win in program history over the Bears in Providence, Rhode Island at the Brodsky Memorial Squash Pavilion. The 6-3 victory also gave the program its first ever victory over a top-10 opponent.
ABOUT THE BANTAMS: The defending national champions No. 2 Trinity (5-0) are off to another big start in its 2015 campaign. With a 9-0 win over No. 12 Williams on Tuesday, the Bantam are 5-0 heading into Friday's match against the Lions. Trinity's unblemished start is also highlighted by wins over No. 10 Dartmouth, No. 15 Bates, No. 16 Middlebury and No. 19 Bowdoin.
ABOUT THE BULLDOGS: Following a 9-0 win over No. 12 Williams on Tuesday, No. 3 Yale is 2-0 jumping into Ivy League play against Columbia on Saturday. The Bulldogs kicked-off the season with a 9-0 home sweep over No. 13 Franklin & Marshall and will hit the road for the first time this weekend to face the Lions.
ABOUT THE BEARS: Columbia will be the second of back-to-back Ivy League opening matches for No. 11 Brown. The Bears (1-0) opened the season with an 8-1 win over No. 21 Wesleyan. Brown will travel to No. 6 Cornell on Saturday before facing the Lions on Sunday morning.
