Cardinals Reach "D" Division Title Match in Howe Cup Competition at Princeton but Fall to UVA
Advancing past Conn. College, 5-4, Sat., Feb. 23 in a Howe Cup "D" Division semi-final at Princeton, Wesleyan stood one win away from the championship and a final ranking of 25th nationally. Wesleyan was in the same position a year ago when the squad upended Northeastern and Smith to reach the finals in "D" Division. Last year, the crown went to St. Lawrence. This year Virginia downed Wesleyan, 7-2, Sun., Feb. 24 to capture the crown. Only Nina Wasserman '10 (photo insert upper right) defeated her UVA opponent at #8 while Jenny Chu '11 earned a default win at #9. Taking on Conn. College for the fourth time this year (three of them going Wesleyan's way), Wesleyan captured the match on the strength of its lower-ladder talent as the five victories came from #4 Liz Demakos '09 (photo insert lower right), #6 Keera Bhandari '08 (main photo), #7 Katie Kalafus '09, #8 Wasserman and #9 Chu. None of the Cardinal winners needed more than four games to lock up her triumph. Wasserman, who closed out the year with an 8-6 record by winning her final six matches, was the only Cardinal to go 3-0 during the Howe Cup. Bhandari paced the team this season in victories with her 14-13 mark as one of four Cardinals to play in each of the team's 27 matches. Demakos, who returned to the team after studying abroad during the first semester, also posted a winning season with an 11-8 record. Others to finish over the .500 mark for the year were Lauren Russman '09 (6-2 before studying abroad second semester) and Chu (6-4). Both number-one player Casey Simchik '10 and Demakos ventured to Navy Feb. 29-Mar. 2 to complete in the CSA individual championships. There each posted a 1-2 mark in the "B" bracket.
