The Middlebury squash season officially ended last Saturday in Princeton, N.J., where Andrew Jung ’16, Charlotte Dewey ’15 and Saskia Pownall-Grey ’16 competed in the College Squash Association Individual Championships. Jung competed in the men’s “B” bracket for the Molloy Cup in which he advanced to the consolation finals. Dewey and Pownall-Grey competed in the women’s “B” bracket for the Holleran Cup.
The most success was enjoyed by Jung, but Dewey also had a good sending off as she played her last match in a Middlebury uniform Saturday afternoon. Jung posted three wins against two losses and advanced to the consolation final, while Dewey posted two wins against two losses and advanced to the second round consolation quarterfinals. Pownall-Grey lost both of her matches after receiving a bye. She lost in the round of 32 in four sets (11-9, 11-1, 12-14 and 11-3) and then in straight sets in the consolation bracket (13-111, 11-8 and 11-5).
Dewey dominated her first opponent, sandwiching an 11-0 victory in the second set with 11-1 wins. She proceeded to fall in a close, four-set second match (12-10, 11-4, 3-11 and 11-9), sending her to the second round consolation pool. In her first match on Saturday, Dewey made easy work of her opponent (11-5, 11-1 and 11-0), sending her to the quarterfinals. Although the quarterfinals would be the last match she would play in, she gave Dartmouth’s Lydie McKenzie a run for her money in a four-set thriller. They traded 11-9 sets to open the match and then McKenzie took the third set 11-5. The fourth and decisive set, however, saw an epic duel. Dewey fought tooth and nail but came up just short in a 15-13 loss.
Before entering last weekend, knowing it would be her last playing competitive squash, Dewey said, “I just want to have fun in my last real squash tournament.” She added, “I have nothing to lose at this point and everything to gain from playing my last weekend of competitive squash. I want to try and just play my best and keep in mind that why I’m out here in the first place is my love for this sport.”
Jung’s successful weekend started off on a sour note Friday morning when he lost in five sets to Darrius Campbell of Bates. Jung narrowly dropped a closely contested first set 12-10, before he rebounded to dominate the second set 11-4. He traded 11-3 victories with Campbell in the third and fourth sets before falling 11-5 in the final set.
Despite being sent to the consolation pool before Friday afternoon had rolled around, Jung furiously fought back in his next three matches without dropping a set. A quick turnaround could not even derail him as he won his match on Friday afternoon decisively, taking the first two sets 11-5 and then sealing the deal in the third set 11-2. Saturday Jung swept his way through the consolation quarterfinals (11-3, 11-5 and 11-4) and semifinals (a trio of 11-5 victories).
By the time he reached the finals on Sunday, Jung was out of gas.
“Unfortunately my body broke down pretty fast and I was just out of energy,” Jung said.
Although low on energy, Jung took William McBrian of Colby to five sets. The pair’s previous meeting on Jan. 10 went to McBrian in four sets. After trading 11-9 scores in the first two sets against McBrian, Jung won the third set 11-5 to gain an edge of two sets to one. The close fourth set loss 11-8 is where the fatigue of playing five matches in two days began to set in for Jung and he dropped the final set 11-5.
Exhausted and disappointed, Jung praised McBrian saying, “He’s a tough competitor.” But he added, “McBrian was someone I thought I should have beaten looking back on the regular season, so I was really looking forward to having an opportunity to play him. I think going into the fifth game I was trying to leave that larger perspective out of my head and just focus on what had worked for me in the games I won.”
