Women’s Squash Brings Home the Gold at Howe Cup

A MAC Attack contingent of 17 players represented the club at the 90th Howe Cup tournament, held Nov. 8-10 in Philadelphia. Established in 1928, the Howe Cup is the United States’ largest and oldest women’s-only squash tournament and the largest women’s squash event in the world. Some 300 women in teams of five — and 112 MPB doubles players — competed in the action-packed, three-day event sponsored by U.S. Squash. It was a squash-tastic weekend with MAC representatives in A, B, C, and D singles and doubles divisions.

The C division team of Becca Spain, Aimee Chang, Gabi Bradley, Gwen Rudolph, and Wendy Whitsell showed confidence and grit throughout the tournament, securing victory in the division with four straight wins.

Lesley Raphael led the deep singles bench of Deepti Iyengar, Marn Heggen, and Sally Bachman. This lineup won three of their four matches, claiming the third-place spot for the D division.

MAC Attack B team, which was led by Cristin O’Brian and included new MAC player Val Worrell, won their first round and fought hard and strong in their next two rounds to make the quarterfinals.

The A singles division had MAC representation from Dulce Ramirez and Phoebe Trubowitz as part of the Pacific Northwest Raindrops team, combining players from Portland and Seattle.

The doubles competition also featured notable MAC performances. Kara Oringdulph-Hale and Dulce Ramirez narrowly lost in a nail-biter quarterfinal against a team that would go on to win the division. Phoebe Trubowitz and her partner had a good run to take the A division consolation title. In a series of MAC-on-MAC doubles games in the C division, Spain and Rudoph beat Chang and Whitsell before losing to Marcia Wood and Ceci Usher in the semifinals. Wood and Usher took home second place overall after a very narrow fifth-set loss in the finals.

MAC Attack players supported each other, made new friends, watched premier talent, and returned to Portland motivated for more squash. Special thanks to the club’s team of women’s players, led by Kara Oringdulph-Hale, for making this one of the biggest MAC showings at Howe Cup in recent times.

Join Women’s Squash at MAC

The inaugural all-women’s squash tournament, The Butternut, is scheduled for March 14-16. Singles team divisions and doubles divisions are available, and registration is now open. There’s also an opportunity to join the all-levels training from 8:30-10:10 a.m. on Sunday mornings.

Contact squash@themac.com for more information.