Racquetwomen Fall to Princeton, 6-1; Season Finale Spoils Perfect Record

Princeton's women's squash team owns national titles for every year but one since the rankings were established in 1973. Saturday, the Crimson racquetwomen tried to change that, but instead left New Jersey with a 6-1 loss and a greater appreciation of dynasties.

The three seniors on the Harvard squad had seen the racquetwomen finish runnerup to the Tigers in each of the past three seasons. It was only a small consolation, then, that senior Wendy Sonnabend, ruined the Princeton sweep with a fourgame victory in the seventh position. Playing in her last Harvard match, Sonnabend dropped the first game, 15-12, but then stormed back to take the next three by scores of 15-11, 17-16, and 15-9.

The loss to Princeton spoiled the Crimson's perfect season, leaving the racquetwomen with a final mark of 9-1. "I am always disappointed when we don't win," coach Jack Barnaby said, "but I am not suprised, because we played a very tough team on their home courts."

Despite what the lopsided score might suggest, Harvard did not go down easily. Playing at number three, freshman Laura Kaye battled Patrice McConnell for five games before succumbing, and Lisa Harrison played well in a four-game loss to Joan McGuire, ranked sixth on the national college level, in the number two position.

"We've closed the gap with Princeton quite a lot since last year," Barnaby said, adding, "up and down the line, the matches were closer this time around."

But the racquetwomen are still far from reaching Princeton's level. Harvard does seem to have time in its favor, however, since four of this year's top five players are freshmen or sophomores. "We are a young, developing team without any real stars, and so the fact that we went almost undefeated this year shows remarkable group effort." Barnaby said.

THE NOTEBOOK: With its win over Harvard the Tigers extended their dualmatch streak to 53 and closed their season at 12-0...Yale defeated Princeton in 1977 for the national title, but hasn't come close since.