On the first weekend of December, the ground outside Dana Hall's Shipley Center was once again covered with snow. Inside, the Zammito Courts were busy with nearly 80 junior girls playing in our third annual junior tournament. The greatest growth this year was in the U17 division, which at 28 entries had 19 more than in 2008. Also a first was the inclusion of a U11 division, with 4 entries taking part in a classic round robin. With 22 participants from SquashBusters and a strong contingent of players from the interscholastic teams of Nobles, Milton, and Dana Hall, one might believe it was a decidedly local tournament. However, with players making the trip from Seattle, St. Louis, Brooklyn, Vermont, and New Jersey, this tournament is clearly growing in popularity outside of the greater Boston area.
With all five divisions playing the now standard PAR 11 style of play, the court schedule was slightly compressed when possible, accounting for slightly shorter matches. There were, however, a number of matches that went well past the 30, even 45-minute mark. An all-girls tournament has its advantages; aside from not having to worry about refereeing or being refereed by boys, the girls also enjoyed pink tournament shirts and beautifully made jewelry boxes as trophies.
In the GU 11 round robin, Madeleine Chai didn't drop a single game on her way to securing the champion's trophy with her victory over runner-up Natasha Jones. A tight battle for third place was won in four games by Sara Keene over Sarah Goldstein.
In the GU 13 division, 8 players made for a very clean draw beginning with the quarterfinals. All matches in this draw were won 3-0, though a few winning players had to fight hard to win some of their games 12-10. Samantha Chai beat Anne Blasberg in the final 11-8, 11-7, 11-5 to take home the championship trophy. Madeleine Chai, the winner of the GU11 draw, doubled up to play in the GU13. After losing 8-11, 7-11, 10-12 to Anne Blasberg in the semi, she worked hard to beat fourth place finisher Gabriela Rodriguez 11-1, 11-5, 11-4. The consolation draw was won by Doria Chen over Annice Kim 11-1, 11-5, 11-4.
32 girls in the GU 15 division made for another full draw. This meant that champion Marina Hartnick had to win 5 matches to take home her trophy. This is the second year in a row that Marina has taken home the trophy after winning the GU 13 last year and making it to the finals in 2007. Marina beat classmate Becky Brownell in the final 11-9, 11-7, 11-8. Top seed Amanda Houser from Brooklyn NY breezed through her first three matches, giving up only 17 points in 9 games of play. After a very tough loss in the semis (8-11 in the fifth) to the eventual champion, Amanda had to face Samantha Chai in the 3/4 playoff. The timing was a challenge for both girls as Samantha had to hot court herself directly from winning the GU 13 division. Amanda had to wait patiently for that match to finish and once their match began who is to say that either girl didn't have an advantage over the other? A tough battle on tired legs saw Samantha win 12-10 in the fifth. Lillie Simourian won the Classic Plate, Clarissa Reichblum from Bennington, VT won the Consolation, and Deanna Pettway won the Plate Consolation prize.
Olivia Wherry from Brooklyn, NY lived up to her #1 seed in the GU 17 division. The only person to take a game off Olivia was Madeline Fraser (also from Brooklyn, NY) in the final. Caroline Monrad took home the third place prize after giving up the first two games in her match against Meyha Sud. In the Classic Plate, it was Sofia Thierry taking home fifth place over Zoe Carey in four games while Caroline Sargent (all the way from Seattle) won the Consolation bracket over Madeleine Smith in yet another grueling five gamer. Alexandra Spiliakos claimed a four victory in the Plate Consolation over newcomer Sarah Allison.
The GU 19 division had but six entries. After the round robin, it was SquashBusters’ Kadineyse Ramize winning the championship match over Anna Porter in three games and Natalie Hunter taking home the third place prize.
On behalf of the Dana Hall School, I’d like to thank all of the players and their parents for coming to the Shipley Center for a great weekend of squash. Special thanks go to Tom Poor, Sophia Spiliakos, Kassie Teng, Libby McClintock and the entire Mass Junior Committee. I’d also like to thank Harrow Sports for supplying shirts and prizes and last, but not least, Cross Courts Squash and Fitness Center, for running the boys’ side of the tournament.
Nick Lloyd, Dana Hall coach
