PC girls squash levels Hill, 9-0

Posted 12/16/13

Penn Charter junior Isabel Hirshberg is undefeated so far this season in the number two spot. (Photo by Tom Utescher) by Tom Utescher Since dropping their squash season opener to powerful Germantown …

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PC girls squash levels Hill, 9-0

Posted

Penn Charter junior Isabel Hirshberg is undefeated so far this season in the number two spot. (Photo by Tom Utescher) Penn Charter junior Isabel Hirshberg is undefeated so far this season in the number two spot. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

Since dropping their squash season opener to powerful Germantown Friends before Thanksgiving, the Penn Charter girls have not lost again, and the Quakers boosted their record to 4-1 last Wednesday with a 9-0 sweep of visiting Hill School.

Two days earlier, Charter had played on the road against Shipley School, who is now hosting their “home” matches at Drexel University. The Quakers were missing senior number one Margaux Losty and also their number three, seventh-grader Elizabeth Ross, but PC prevailed, 6-3. A week earlier, they had won by the same score over Harriton High School, and had also prevailed in their Inter-Ac League debut against Agnes Irwin, 5-4.

Losty, who has received her “likely letter” from the admissions department at Cornell University, faced a fellow senior last Wednesday in Hill School’s Margaret Smith. Both players appeared somewhat listless in the first game, but Losty eventually captured that opening round at 11-5, then bore down to take the next two at 11-0, 11-3.

In the third spot, Ross faced another young player in Hill’s Savannah Lee, and the PC middle-schooler had little trouble overcoming the visiting freshman, 11-4, 11-0, 11-5.

In between these two Quakers players came junior number two Isabel Hirshberg who, like Ross, has not lost a match so far this season.

Just cleared to compete after suffering from bronchitis, Hirshberg certainly didn’t play like she’d come off the “DL,” covering the court well and delivering strong strokes to polish off Hill junior Grace Forzelle, 11-0, 11-0, 11-2.

With the exception of the number one bout, the odd-numbered matches were played first. Joining Ross in the win column were senior number five Leigh Steinberg, eighth-grade number seven Gwen Davis, and junior number nine Claudia Dykstra.

With both her parents and grandparents looking on, Steinberg subdued visiting junior Angela Qi, 11-5, 11-6, 11-7, while Davis downed Hill senior Erin Lee, 11-6, 11-3, 11-8. Playing against another 11th-grader, Dykstra defeated Anessa Amin in four games, 11-8, 5-11, 11-3, 11-8,

To put PC over the top in the team scoring, Hirshberg finished up around the same time as her senior teammate, Danielle Reisley. Hill School’s freshman number four, Ally Maner, fell to Reisley, 11-3, 11-0, 11-2.

In the sixth spot, sophomore Jordyn Schwartz survived a second-game scare to overcome visiting junior Laura Oranjuren, 11-8, 13-11, 11-6, and PC’s number eight, sophomore Jenni Bown, knocked off junior Erica Yu, 11-4, 11-5, 11-2.

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