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Charter second, Springside fourth in MASA tourney
by TOM UTESCHER
Penn Charter and Episcopal Academy shared the squash
championship in the Girls Inter-Ac League this winter, and the parity
between the two teams was underscored when they participated in the Middle
Atlantic Squash Association tournament at Lawrenceville School earlier
this month.
In the final team scoring Episcopal eked out a win over the PC Quakers,
16 points to 15.5, while Agnes Irwin put up seven points for third place
and Springside scored six points to finish fourth in the eight-team field.
Lawrenceville finished with four-and-a-half points, Shipley had half-a-point,
and Baldwin and Hill School did not score.
As usual, the seven entries from each school were separated into four
different brackets, with the number one and two players from each team
playing in Division A, three and four in Division B, five and six in Division
C, and the number sevens in Division D.
Emery Maine, Springside’s senior number one, completed an undefeated
season by winning Division A, surviving her toughest challenge of the
winter to top Episcopal junior Logan Greer in the finals, 7-9, 9-7, 0-9,
9-7, 10-9. The match served as a sort of squash swansong for the Springsider,
who will devote her attention to lacrosse at Princeton University next
year.
Penn Charter’s top player, Britt Hebden (who’ll be at Penn
in the fall), won each of her first two MASA matches at 3-0, then succumbed
to Maine in the semifinals by the same score. Quakers number two Christina
Matthias (also bound for Penn), opened with a 3-0 victory, then knocked
off Agnes Irwin number one Toby Eyre, 3-2 in the quarterfinals. She lost
to Greer in straight games in the semifinals, then defaulted to her teammate,
Hebden, in the third-place match.
Charter’s Division B entries, junior number three Kiera Murasko-Blank
and sophomore number four Katie Correlli, each went through to the semifinals,
where both suffered setbacks against Episcopal players. EA’s Sandra
Mumanachit defeated fellow Churchwoman Lexi Van Arkel in the finals, while
Murasko-Blank was a 3-2 winner in the third-place bout. Springside’s
Division B players left the main draw early but met one another in the
consolation finals, where senior Alison Curry took the measure of freshman
Gretchen Carlson, 3-0.
Another Episcopal Mumanachit, Sarah, won the Division C final by a 3-0
count over Charter junior Shannon Harrington, who had given up a total
of just two games in her three previous matches. Mumanachit had knocked
off the Quakers’ number six, freshman Lexi Glassman, in the semifinal
round, but Glassman came back to take a 3-2 decision from Irwin’s
Cara Flynn in the third-place contest. Springside’s Elspeth Lodge
won her first match and then bowed out against Harrington in the quarterfinals,
and another Lions senior, Whitney Manly-Power, lost her opener but rebounded
to win the consolation final.
In Division D, Penn Charter senior Sarah Roberts (who’ll attend
Brown University) defeated Springside sophomore Leslie Jacoby in the semifinals,
then won the championship bout in straight games over Episcopal’s
Kim Kirkpatrick.
In addition to winning the top division at the tourney, Springside’s
Maine became the inaugural recipient of a newly-created MASA Sportsmanship
Award. The existing award for team sportsmanship was presented to Lawrenceville.
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