Staff
Team Northwestern didn’t bow down in the face of stiff competition during the squash tournament at the Ontario Winter Games in Sudbury over the weekend.
The eight-member squad, comprised of five players from the local Sunset Country Squash Club, entered the competition ranked seventh of the nine teams but finished in fifth place overall once the dust had settled.
The schedule offered no favours for Team Northwestern, matching them up against the eventual silver-medallists (Toronia) and bronze-medallists (Ottawa) on the first day of competition.
Northwestern split with Ottawa 4-4 in terms of matches, but lost the game count 16-14.
The local contingent again came close against Toronia, but fell 5-3.
Northwestern rebounded with a 6-2 defeat of Northern before taking a razor-thin decision over Central.
They were tied at four matches and 12 games apiece, but Team Northwestern took the total points tally by a 55-point margin.
Their 2-2 record in the round-robin slotted them in third place, setting up a date with Western.
Northwestern prevailed 5-3 to advance to the fifth-place matches while Western dropped to the seventh-place ones.
The locals ended up capturing fifth-place after just edging out Southwestern by a single game after tying 4-4 in the matches.
The fifth-place showing represented the highest finish Team Northwestern has achieved in its 10 years of Winter Games competition.
Coach Bob Tkachuk said the team’s females carried most of the weight as Angel McCormack and Anika Alexander swept their six matches in the U13 and U15 divisions, respectively.
Kaitlyn DeGagne, playing in the U17 division, won four of six, narrowly losing one other.
As for the boys, Anniss Seid won three of his six matches in the U17 division, which coaches Bob and Mary Beth Tkachuk noted was “the most competitive division by far.”
Lastly, Shawn Brady dropped all six of his matches in the U13 division, but fell by only two points in the final set of one of those.
“We would like to congratulate the kids on their effort and continued strong play at the Winter Games,” the Tkachuks wrote.
“We are very proud of them all.”
Two of the Sunset Country junior squashers have one more tournament remaining.
Seid and McCormack both are slated to attend the national championships April 22-25 in Calgary.
