Down 8-2 in the opening game of her match and being badly outplayed, Varsity Blues women’s squash player Catherine Deri lost the grip on her racket, desperately lunging to save a game ball, an effort that would be in vain—that moment encapsulated her match with Western’s Vanessa Steinwall, and also reflected the way the early stages of the Blues-Mustangs OUA team final was unfolding.
Deri would go on to drop that match in straight games, 9-2, 9-3, 9-6, and put the Blues in an early 2-0 hole in the best of six series.
Later, with the Blues down 3-1 in matches, they needed to sweep the last two matches to tie up the total games category and they came agonizingly close to doing just that. U of T’s Lindsay Auld went out and put on a masterful display, easily “squashing” opponent Tara Turner, 9-0, 9-5, 9-3, to keep hope alive.
In a rematch of the gold medal individual final from one week earlier, U of T’s Julia Hamilton needed the match of her life to upset Western’s Leah Bishop, who won the individual championship showdown and took an undefeated record into this last match of the season. Hamilton reeled off seven straight points to come back and win the first game 9-5, then controlled play in a 9-4 second game victory, and the improbable comeback was close to being realized.
However, Bishop showed why she had dominated the OUA all season long, elevating her play in the third game, and winning it resoundingly, 9-0, to clinch the team title. Hamilton would bounce back from a 6-0 fourth game deficit to clinch the match with a tight 9-7 last game win.
U of T head coach Dave Cooper had nothing but praise for the efforts of Hamilton, who he said was up against remarkable odds going into the last match.
“Upsets in squash don’t happen very often. That would have been an enormous upset. One, to have beaten her, the fact she hadn’t beaten her before and to have beaten her 3-0. All credit to her for being up 2-0 and then winning 3-1.”
Ultimately, the title turned on a handful of games won within individual matches early in the day in which the players, of course, did not know the consequences, based on how later matches unfolded.
“We knew it would probably come down to 3-3,” said Cooper, who talked about how momentum swung back and forth early on. “When Pat Meindl, our number six, got a game in the first match we were in good strong position. If Nathalie Martinek hadn’t dropped a game (in a 3-1 win, but over an opponent who had never taken a game off her before) we would have been up going into the last game, but you know it’s ifs, ands, or buts.”
While the Blues left their small gallery of fans on hand disappointed in the final outcome, Western and U of T proved once again why their squash rivalry is so strong in an entertaining gold medal series. “That’s a healthy thing for women’s squash. Long may it continue,” said Cooper.
In contrast, Western’s men’s team sapped the drama out of their gold medal win early, winning all 12 matches in their semi-finals and finals en route to a 19th consecutive team title.
At an awards banquet later in the evening, Auld and Hamilton copped first team OUA all-star honours for U of T, while Deri and Martinek were named second team all-stars. The Blues will be hosting the national college and university championships March 1-3.
