Last weekend was one of my favorites so far this semester, because I spent three days with my squash team competing in our end-of-season tournament—nationals!
Every year, teams come from all over the country (we even played a team from California!) to compete. What’s really cool about it is that even though we’re just a club team (as opposed to varsity), we still get to go. It’s even better because the teams are divided up into six divisions, so we finally got to play teams of comparable level instead of getting our butts kicked by the varsity teams we play at every other tournament (which is always a great learning experience, but it’s gratifying to be able to hold our own for once! 🙂 ) Above is a picture of my team before one of our matches!
We drove down to Connecticut on Friday morning and immediately played our first match at Yale University. We also had one match each on Saturday and Sunday mornings, giving us plenty of time to explore the town, hang out together, and eat lots of food. It was the perfect mix of fun and squash, and it’s always nice to get away for a weekend. It was also super exciting to see how much our team has improved. Though we didn’t win any matches overall as a team, we won more individual matches than ever before, and everyone played their personal best. I even got my first win in an exciting match that went to five games (the most possible in squash)!
Though the end of the tournament was sad for me and the other senior on the team, it was exactly how I wanted to end my (relatively short) college squash career. I’m proud of how much the club has grown in the two years I have been involved, and I can’t wait to see what the future brings for my younger teammates!