The number one player for Germantown Friends, junior Daisy Lentz, backhands a ball off the rear glass. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

Friends Schools League members Germantown Friends and Shipley School have played interscholastic squash for decades, and Friends Central took up the sport a few seasons ago. Now, with downtown Philly's Friends Select School starting up a program, the four-school standard has been met for squash to become an official interscholastic sport in the FSL.

Last Friday at the Germantown Cricket Club, the girls of GFS hosted one of the younger franchises, the Phoenix of Friends Central. FC arrived without a full nine-player complement, so several athletes doubled up against the Tigers, who came away with a 9-0 victory that raised their record to 4-1 for the season.

In the first set of matches, GFS juniors Natalie Harrity and Claire Weiss and sophomore Katie Benoliel all registered 3-0 wins. At number four on the team ladder, Harrity handled visitor Lyla Forman, 11-3, 11-1, 11-2, and in the fifth spot Weiss won, 11-8, 11-2, 11-7 against Kathryn Greene.

At number six it was Benoliel over Hope Durlofsky of the Phoenix, 11-1, 11-6, 11-2.

Before any of the matches commenced, Germantown Friends recognized its one graduating senior, Alex Pear. Pear, who is headed for Williams College, later stepped onto the court in the second spot to dispatch FC's Hannah Rossio, 11-1, 11-3, 11-1. An eighth-grader on the Tigers varsity, Lindsay Burnham, put up scores of 11-2, 11-3, 11-2 as she went past visiting number three Kyla Core.

GFS junior Natalie Harrity (left) lines up a stroke against Friends Central number four Lyla Forman. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

In the top spot, GFS junior Daisy Lentz downed Claire Coss of FC, 11-5, 11-2, 11-1. Lentz had just been facing the best competition in the world at the 2018 British Junior Open. The Tigers' 11th-grader started out seeded in the 17/32 category, and the second of her two main draw victories came against a much higher seed in the five-through-eight grouping.

After upsetting Egypt's Zeina Khaled in three games, Lentz succumbed to a familiar rival, Penn Charter junior Elisabeth Ross. The two 11th-graders have joined together in the past to win national doubles championships.

After the top six bouts were completed at GCC last Friday, three Friends Central players took the court a second time to face the number seven through nine racquetwomen for the host team.

Freshman number seven Evan Weiss defeated Rossio, 11-5, 11-6, 11-2, sophomore number eight Erin Schott topped Forman 11-1, 11-13, 11-3, 11-6 and junior number nine Jane MacRae overcame Core, 11-4, 11-4, 11-5.

In addition, there was an exhibition match in which FC's Greene bowed to Germantown Friends junior Gabby Schwartz, 11-4, 11-7, 11-2.