Trinity Women's Squash Captain's Blog by Kate Wymard'12: Entry #4
NESCACs
There are certain days one looks forward to in their life. On the Trinity women’s squash team, one significant occurrence is Senior Day. It takes place during the last home game of the regular season. Mather Dining Hall is one of the prime social places on campus and to walk in and see my face pictured on every table was the pivotal moment. I realized that my squash career and time at Trinity was soon coming to a close. As I joined the other seniors on the team at the table, we couldn’t help to fight back tears.
At a college graduation five years ago, the guest speaker quoted an old southern lady in saying, “You can’t climb a steep hill.” After losing to Yale and Harvard, we have continued to bring the determination to win through this week. Leading up to NESCACS was a tough week of training. Tuesday was the hardest practice of my life. My team has been fortunate to have three amazingly inspiring coaches. Assistant Coach Joanne Schickerling is a coach who continually thinks we can be training harder and has taught us how to push through sore legs and heavy breathing during practice. For the first time since I have been at Trinity, everyone was screaming words of not only encouragement but anything necessary to get her two sisters on court to keep going.
Melva Lopez has continued to improve this entire season and one reason is her determination on the court. She is never lazy in practice and she pushes her training partner to her fullest. Melva came back to win a long and tiring five-game match on Saturday, which I can say is not easy to do. Off the court, Melva also does wonders for the team. She is always focused on making sure that everyone is interacting and bonding as a family. Melva does what is best for the team, not just herself, which we all admire and appreciate.
As I have previously mentioned, this season has been filled with the most spirited and bonded team that I’ve been a part of here at Trinity. The underclassmen completely outdid themselves for Senior Day. We also had incredible support from the parents of both our team and the men’s team who made sure we were never hungry in between matches. We have an advantage of playing at home every year in the NESCAC Tournament and for this we are very grateful. There is nothing better than a sea of blue and yellow outside the glass and hearing “BANTS” in every accent. (Trinity won the tournament for the sixth time in a row with ease, downing Wesleyan, 9-0, Middlebury, 8-1, and Bates, 9-0)
Now all of our energy is focused on playing Princeton away on
Saturday.
Three weeks until Howe Cup.