PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania women's squash program ended team competition for the 2022-23 season on a high note, winning the Kurtz Cup at the College Squash Association (CSA) Team Championships Sunday afternoon, blanking Dartmouth 9-0 at the Penn Squash Center.

Jana Dweek sent a message right from the start of the day's action, taking her match in 18 minutes, the quickest victory of the day for the Quakers. Emma Carter followed with a four-game win and Grace Lavin rallied from a 2-1 deficit for a five-game win to close the opening wave.

Ashley Manning dropped the first game of her match, then responded with the next three, putting Penn up 4-0. Penelope Oh also dropped the first game of her match before storming back in the next three, clinching the victory for Penn. Eujung Park put the icing on the cake with Penn's second five-game win of the day.

Following two more three-game wins from Avni Anand and Emma Wolf, Natasha Pensler, in perhaps the closest start-to-finish match of the day, came away with a five-game win, closing the book on Penn's second 9-0 victory of the weekend, following Friday's dominant performance against Bowdoin.

"I'm very happy about today's result," said women's head coach/Director of Squash Jack Wyant. "Proud of the effort, proud of the togetherness. We've talked all season long about trying to get better every day. We had a tough stretch of matches leading up to this weekend, but what this team demonstrated this weekend is that they have improved, and the proof is in the results. We beat Dartmouth 8-1 with a full lineup a month ago; today, we beat them 9-0 missing two players with injuries; I think that indicates the progress they've made as much as anything else. Congratulations to the seniors, we will miss them, we're excited to have them join our Penn squash family as alums. To the returners, we're excited for next year and can't wait to get training going."

For the season, Lavin finished with a team-best 10 wins. Oh finished in second with eight victories, one ahead of Carter, Park, and Pensler. Anand and Dweek ended team competition with six wins each.

Results

1. Avni Anand def. Claire Aube (D) – 11-6, 11-9, 11-8
2. Jana Dweek def. Emily Schuster (D) – 11-5, 11-1, 11-3
3. Ashley Manning def. Jesse Brownell (D) – 7-11, 11-9, 12-10, 11-1
4. Natasha Pensler def. Ellie Burke (D) – 13-11, 10-12, 11-9, 5-11, 11-8
5. Eujung Park def. Priya Verma (D) – 1-11, 11-3, 11-6, 5-11, 11-7
6. Grace Lavin def. Neeya Patel (D) – 11-4, 7-11, 8-11, 11-4, 11-9
7. Penelope Oh def. Chelsea Cho (D) – 6-11, 11-5, 11-8, 11-6
8. Emma Carter def. Aubrey Lennon (D) – 15-13, 8-11, 11-8, 11-6
9. Emma Wolf def. Callie Worth (D) – 11-7, 11-6, 11-7

Order of finish: 2, 8, 6, 3, 7, 5, 1, 9, 4