Thank you to local pro Bailey Bondy for an excellent article, we look forward to more in the future!
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Resilience & Grit: Amanda Sohby
Category: Women
It’s that time of year again – the Oracle Netsuite Open welcoming the pro players to town and for the second time, Aisling Blake and Lauren Xaba will be hosting their Women’s Leadership Luncheon.
This year we have writer, clinical and sports psychologist Dr. Joan Steidinger joining us for a ‘Fireside Chat’. Attendees will receive a free copy of Dr. Joan’s book and we will discuss, among other issues; gender inequality in the workplace and the drive towards parity which is fitting as, for the first time in this event’s history, both women and men will earn the same prize money!
All proceeds will benefit female student-athletes in the SquashDrive and Squash on Track programs.
Click here to purchase tickets and support!
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2018 Howe Cup
‘The Howe Cup is the United States’ largest squash event for women and an annual team championship tournament run by US Squash. The annual women’s five-person team tournament began in 1928 as an inter-city competition between New York, Philadelphia and Boston. It received the Howe Cup title in 1955 when Virginia Griggs of New York City donated a permanent trophy, the Howe Cup, named in honor of Margaret Howe and her twin daughters Peggy and Betty.’ ~USSquash.com
This year the tournament was held in Philadelphia, with teams from across the country and Canada competing. Philadelphia native and founder of the Bay Area’s Squash Drive Lauren Patrizio Xaba played in the A division for one of the Philly teams, the Philly Tasteykates. The competition was fierce in the top division, with another home team, the Philly Phab Phive, ultimately taking the title.
The B division was an equally tight race, with Courtney Sabo at the helm of the Boasting Bellas. This all California team played spectacularly, and brought the title back home to the west coast. Congratulations to Courtney Sabo (Bay Club San Francisco), Juliet Lamont (the University Club), Sara Barrett (Bay Club San Francisco), Rohini Gupta (Bay Club San Francisco), and Emilie van der Hoorn (University California San Francisco) on a great win!
Usually a strong team, this years California C team was plagued by injuries leading up to the tournament. Unable to field a full team Carrie Kahn and Kelly McKinley (both University California San Francisco) joined with several Canadian players to form the international Golden Canucks. Despite great games and tight matches, the team was knocked out in the quarter finals.
Finally, the D division saw Amanda Chew (Bay Club San Francisco) play for the New York Scared Hitless. Though the name suggests otherwise the team was calm, collected, and made it all the way from the round of 32 to the quarter finals before loosing to Chicago, who ended up winning the division.
In addition to the tournament, the players were treated to an exhibition match between Olivia Fiechter and Olivia Blatchford-Clyne. Despite knowing each other since they were juniors in highschool this is the first time the Olivia’s have battled it out on the court. Fiechter had home court advantage, but Blatchford-Clyne’s experience and patience paid off with a 3-0 victory. The matches were followed by a brief Q and A session, during which we all gained some great tips and insights. Blatchford-Clyne stressed the importance of a good warmup while Fiechter focused on nutrition as key to her performance. When asked about pre-match routines, Blatchford-Clyne admitted to her love of long hot showers before a game to clear her head. Fiechter on the other hand prefers the more horizontal approach of napping. It was an inspiring way to start off the tournament, and everyone did a great job channeling their inner Olivia’s both on and off the court.
A huge thank you to Juliet Lamont and the University Club San Francisco for hosting a phenomenal Women’s Squash Week event on September 26. Players of all levels came to play and drill, supporting each other, the sport, and the growing community of female players in the Bay Area. Collage players faced off against beginners, while the youngest members were busy working on their racquet grip.
Squash is a seminal component of many women’s social lives; in fact we call it the “Squash Sisterhood.” On Saturday, September 8, the Bay Club San Francisco hosted a friendly team tournament and social event that brought together women from the Norcal region for competition, catching up, and meeting new players. The group ranged from those of us who have been playing together for the past 12 years to newer participants who are recent college grads or new arrivals to SF. Squash provides an instant sense of community in today’s transient society, particularly in San Francisco. Over 40 women attended, including local female pros Lauren Patrizio, Aisling Blake, and Shirin Kaufman.
There were 8 teams, each comprised of an A,B,C, and D player. Congratulations to the winning team, with Izzy Weisman (Club Sport San Ramon), Courtney Sabo (Bay Club San Francisco), Amara Warren (Bay Club San Francisco) and Jessica Lanham (University California San Francisco) taking home bragging rights for the year.
All divisions had a great roster, particularly the women’s D division which was oversubscribed to and had a round robin in conjunction with the team tournament. Armando Olguin has been working with many women in a Monday night clinic at the Bay Club San Francisco and the group of D players has grown as a result of his coaching and encouragement. Thank you to longtime player Jacinta Corbet for her work in organizing and helping out with the women’s D round robin!
Norcal Squash kindly provided water bottles and squash balls for the event and the Bay Club San Francisco provided the courts. There was a lot of energy and enthusiasm for continuing the tradition of a monthly women’s round robin, in addition to the annual women’s team tournament. Next months women’s round robin is hosted by Cathy Gregory at Stanford on October 13 at 2:00pm in Palo Alto. We anticipate that we will meet again in November at Oakwood Athletic Club in Lafayette, stay posted for more details and be sure to stay up to date on women’s squash events on Facebook.
By Carrie Kahn
Categories
Women’s Squash Week 2018
Women’s Squash Week – Registration to host an event open now!
Every year Women’s Squash Week is a season opener to encourage women to get on court and play. We encourage every club, everywhere in the US (and beyond) to set up an event appropriate to their club in order to entice the women on court. We will help you promote your event and ask that you to send us photos and updates so that we can highlight all the activity across the country. Ideally, these WSW events will lead to sustained activity for the women at your club. WSW this year is scheduled for September 22-30.
If you would like to host an event please fill out this form here. This will help us to market all the activity and to build awareness in the community. We will also send out an email to all players that we know to register for your event. We ask that you have your women register so that we can track these players and follow up with them on further programs they may be interested in. Registration to participate in these programs will open up in August.
Of particular interest to us this year is to promote women’s and girl’s doubles. If you have a doubles court please think about how you can use this campaign to get more women playing.
There is plenty of activity nationally for women squash players. And we hope that these programs can help you at a local level to engage your female members. If you have any questions at all about women’s squash please let me know. It would be great to use these two initiatives to drive more women to the game that we all love.
Kim
Kim Clearkin
Vice President – Programs and Events
US SQUASH
555 Eighth Avenue, Suite 1102 New York, NY 10018
Ph. 212 268 4090 | Dir. 646 507 5224 | Fax. 212 268 4091
www.ussquash.com | www.usopensquash.com | @USSQUASH | @USOpenSquash | @WomensSquash
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Ladies, Save the Date!
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HOWE CUP 2016
The California Golden Girls thank the NorCal Squash Association for their support of the two Howe Cup teams who traveled to Stamford CT in November. Along with support by SF Bay Club, registration fees were covered. This substantially defrayed the overall cost for each player. We enjoyed the tough East Coast competition and the warm social activities. Many of us reconnected with squash friends from previous Howe Cups and younger team members reconnected with former college teammates. Everyone was very enthusiastic and looks forward to growing the women’s presence here in California. Thanks again for your generous support and please spread the word for women of all squash levels to join in. This year we sponsored two B teams but our future goal is an A, C and D team as well.
Categories
NorCal Peninsula League
Dear squash players,
The NorCal Peninsula League is looking to grow the number of teams and get some fresh faces in for this season. The peninsula league runs from approximately end of September to March and involves bi-weekly matches at Bay Club Redwood Shores, Bay Club Cupertino, Bay Club Santa Clara, and Stanford University.
The season culminates with playoffs for the top two teams in each division from the City, East Bay, Peninsula, and Sacramento leagues. Teams are co-ed and typically have 6 to 12 players, with 4 players needed for each match. We are looking for more players and teams across all divisions.
The division criteria are:
1st Division players must be above a US Squash ranking of 4.50. Substitutes must have a ranking above 4.3. And play on Thursday night.
2nd Division players must have a US Squash ranking of 4.00 – 5.00. Substitutes must have a ranking above 3.7. And play on Tuesday night.
3rd Division players must have a US Squash ranking of 3.20 – 4.30. Substitutes must have a ranking above 3.0. And play on Wednesday night.
4th Division players must be below a US Squash ranking of 3.30.
No substitutes are allowed.
If you are interested in joining a team or being a captain/co-captain please email me directly at steven.friedland@gmail.com.
Also you must be a US Squash member in order to join, which means that it does involve paying for the year long membership with US Squash. You have until next Friday to join a team, and we would also like to know by Monday if you are interested in being a captain.
Thank you,
Steven Friedland
The Olympic Club women’s squash team played their second annual match against Stanford’s Varsity team on Saturday, February 20. The OC team traveled to Stanford’s campus in Palo Alto for Stanford’s only home match of the year. It was a tough match and the OC team had a loss of 8-1. Pia Trikha won her match in three games at the number five spot. Jesse Pacheco lost her match in four games at the number one slot, and Toby Eyre lost in a close five game match at the number two spot. Stanford has an especially strong team this year and finished 6th in the country at nationals held at Yale this past weekend. We look forward to playing them again next year!
contributed by Lauren Patrizio Xaba, SquashDrive
