Women’s Squash Heads to Philadelphia for Team Championships

HANOVER, N.H. — The Dartmouth women's squash team travels to Philadelphia for the 2023 College Squash Association (CSA) National Collegiate Women's Team Championships. The Big Green look to close out the season with a strong performance in the Kurtz Division, which is hosted by Penn.

The Big Green enter the tournament riding a three-match win streak over the likes of Middlebury, Williams and Brown. Dartmouth has been strong in matches outside of Hanover, which bodes well for the CSA Women's Team Championships. The Big Green hold a record of 7-3 in road and neutral-site contests.

Dartmouth was placed in the Kurtz Division, which features the No. 9-16 ranked programs in the nation. The No. 10-ranked Big Green have faced off with five of the seven teams in their field, including No. 9 Penn, No. 11 Tufts, No. 12 Stanford, No. 13 Williams and No. 16 Bowdoin.

Throughout the course of the 2022-23 season, Dartmouth is 4-1 against opponents featured in its division. The Big Green hold regular-season wins over Tufts, Bowdoin, Stanford and Williams. Penn is the lone team in Dartmouth's division that holds a win over the Big Green this year, a 8-1 decision in Hanover on Jan. 21.

The Big Green open the tournament against an unfamiliar foe: No. 15 Amherst. Dartmouth last faced off with the Mammoths last season, with the No. 13 Big Green knocking off No. 12 Amherst by a result of 7-2 on the road. Amherst enters this matchup with a record of 12-5.

A win over Amherst would set the Big Green up to face the winner of the quarterfinal match between Tufts and No. 14 William Smith. Dartmouth holds a 7-2 win over Tufts from a matchup on Dec. 4, 2022. William Smith enters the tournament off a strong 17-2 season, which featured a Liberty League championship.

The Big Green will rely on their veteran leadership to claim victory at the Women's Team Championships. Dartmouth features six student-athletes who have previous postseason experience, including Claire Aube, Ellie Burke, Emily Schuster, Neeya Patel, Priya Verma and Emma Supattapone.

Dartmouth reached the final of the Kurtz Division last season following wins over No. 15 Bates and No. 11 Brown. The Big Green's road to the Kurtz Cup was stifled in the final round by No. 9 Cornell by a score of 8-1.

The program looks to claim its first Kurtz Cup since 2017, when the No. 9 Big Green knocked off Drexel in the final round to secure the tournament victory. Since then, Dartmouth has made the final round of the division four consecutive times, falling just short in the championship match.

Dartmouth this weekend, Friday, Feb. 17 at 12:30 p.m. The Big Green look to string together three wins to claim a postseason championship.

A live stream is available for all CSA National Collegiate Women's Team Championship matches on YouTube, with links provided above. Live stats will be provided by clublocker.com and can be accessed above or on the team schedule page.

About the Kurtz Cup
The Kurtz Cup is named after Aggie Kurtz, a legendary figure in the squash community and long-tenured head coach of the Big Green. Kurtz spent 17 seasons with Dartmouth, amassing over 100 victories. She was the first woman appointed to the Dartmouth athletic staff when coeducation arrived in 1972 and coached the Big Green's field hockey and lacrosse programs.

Kurtz was an accomplished squash player, both as a student-athlete at Smith College and as representative of the United States at the 1968 and 1972 iterations of the Wolfe-Noel Cup. She is a member of the US Squash Hall of Fame for her contributions to the sport as an athlete, coach and administrator.

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