A year ago, the Yale women's squash team dethroned Trinity, the defending two-time national champion, on its way to a perfect season and the Triple Crown of collegiate squash: the Ivy title, the national championship, and the Collegiate Squash Association's Howe Cup. This year, they did it all again.

"It's hard to take on 16 collegiate women -- there's a lot of drama."

With all nine starters back this year -- plus the highly touted freshman recruit Miranda Ranieri '08 -- expectations were high. But the Elis had lost an integral element of last year's success during the off-season, when head coach Mark Talbott left for Stanford. Mark's brother, Dave Talbott, who has coached the Yale men's squad for more than 20 years, assumed the head coaching duties of both men and women.

"Mark's a little more laid back than I am," Dave says. "After 22 years of coaching the men, I'm pretty hard-core in the way I run practices. Instead of rebelling against that, the women decided it would be beneficial. They knew I was in a tough situation, and they were incredibly supportive."

Eli ace Michelle Quibell '06, who repeated this year as national individual champion, says Mark's departure wasn't easy. "Losing someone that means a lot to you is always going to be difficult. But Dave was amazing. It's hard to take on 16 collegiate women -- there's a lot of drama."

On the court this year, Quibell and the Elis largely avoided drama, dominating their opponents from the first match of the season to the last. The Bulldogs won 9 of their 14 matches with perfect 9-0 scores and lost just 10 individual matches all season long.

The only real scare came on February 12 at Harvard, when the Crimson threatened to end the Elis' two-year undefeated streak and take the Ivy title. Before a hostile Cambridge crowd, the two teams were tied at three matches apiece before No. 4 Ranieri stormed back from a 0-2 deficit to win 3-2 and put the Elis up 4-3. No. 3 Catherine McLeod's 3-0 victory sealed the win and clinched both the Ivy and national titles. On February 20, the team defended its Howe Cup title in a 7-2 victory over Harvard at Princeton.

The Elis will lose two starters to graduation, captain Frances Ho '05 and Lauren Doline '05. Still, Quibell believes the Elis can three-peat. "It won't be as straightforward next year," she says, "but I think we have the potential to win it again."

Last of the spring ice
by Jennifer Kaylin

"See that girl?" says Bobbi Nesheim, as a lithe figure sails by in a black outfit. "She's 14. I've known her since, well, since before she was born. I taught her mother as an undergraduate. People have long affiliations with this club."

"You can't think about other things, so you can't think about your problems."

The club is the Yale Figure Skating Club, and Nesheim, a former director of Yale's International Center, is a founding member and the current president. As such, she knows a lot about longevity. Standing by the entrance to Ingalls Rink, directing new arrivals like a maitre d', she points out skaters as though identifying members of her extended family. "See that man? That's Tom, a psychiatrist. He's been with us at least 15 years." A middle-aged couple skates past, arm in arm, lifting their legs in unison. "That's Seth and Elizabeth. They've been dancing together for about ten years." A moment later, two men glide by holding hands. "Joe's an instructor. He's teaching T.P. the Ten-Fox," Nesheim says.

The Figure Skating Club began informally in the 1960s and became a U.S. Figure Skating Association member club in 1975. Its 200 members, from beginners to accomplished skaters, take to the Ingalls ice from September to April. They range in age from preschoolers enrolled in Snowplow Sam sessions to skaters in their 70s. Nesheim says anyone can join, but about two-thirds of the members have some affiliation with Yale.

 "I love to skate. It makes me feel free," says Kathy Dowd, a Hamden public school teacher. She says the best thing about figure skating is that it forces her to concentrate: "You can't think about other things, so you can't think about your problems." On this particular Saturday, Dowd is working on her spins, jumps, and "moves in the field" -- the patterns of basic stroking, steps, and turns needed to master precise footwork with speed. "I've been sick, so I haven't jumped for a month," she says, "but the fear comes right back."

Martina Brueckner, a pediatric cardiologist at the School of Medicine, says she took up skating about ten years ago for post-pregnancy exercise. "It's very addictive," she says. "You get sucked in pretty easily." She joined the club about two years ago and sometimes participates in competitions for people who learned to skate as adults. This morning Brueckner is practicing her "flying camel," a spiral jump followed by a multi-rotational spin, but it's not going well. "You consistently make the jump without a problem, and then one day it just leaves you," she says, wiping the ice off her skate blades. Brueckner says she's drawn to the rink as much for the sociability as for the skating. "My work is so intense. This is a completely different world. Half of what gets me here is hanging out with everyone."

Thomas Kosten, a professor of psychiatry and medicine, moves through his paces like the veteran he is. Kosten has been skating since he was a boy. He met his wife at a rink. But five years ago he decided he'd had enough, and he hung up his skates. That only lasted two years. Now he skates for an hour and a half twice a week.

Why skating, as opposed to running or biking? Kosten looks as if he can't believe someone would ask something so obvious. "Those things are boring. Skating isn't boring," he says. "It strengthens your muscles. It doesn't blow out your knees. Plus, it's a little romantic."

Women's hockey bows out -- but beats the odds
by Jessica Bialecki '08

When the members of the women's hockey team stepped onto the ice at Union College on March 12 for their first-ever ECAC semifinal appearance, they knew they had defied the odds just by making it this far. As the certain underdog -- the only team in the ECAC tournament not ranked in the national top ten -- they also knew that they were facing a stiff challenge from then-No. 5 Harvard.

"It was quite an emotional roller coaster that afternoon."

But the Bulldogs managed to hold the Crimson's potent offensive line scoreless for the first 50 minutes, and after pulling goalie Sarah Love '06 for an extra attacker, tied the game with only 14.2 seconds remaining. Although Harvard eventually pulled out a 2-1 overtime victory, the Bulldogs put up a good fight. "It was quite an emotional roller coaster that afternoon," says Yale captain Erin Duggan '05.

Indeed, the entire season was a roller coaster ride for the Yale women. After starting out the year with a program-best 9-5 record, beating Harvard for the first time in 20 years, and earning a No. 10 national ranking, the Bulldogs suffered a letdown at the beginning of the second semester. The effects of long bus trips and extended periods away from campus began to show on the young team: they lost seven of the first nine games in the new year.

Duggan and fellow seniors Nicole Symington and Alison Turney saw that their season was beginning to fade away, and they resolved to turn it around. "It starts with kids like Nicole, Erin, and Ali committing to rebuilding a program," says coach Hilary Witt. "I just can't say enough about those three kids and what they sacrificed. It's been a real group effort to get them back on track."

With senior leadership, solid goaltending by Love, the offensive prowess of leading scorer Jenna Spring '07, and a remarkable injury comeback from rookie Helen Resor '08, the Bulldogs ended the season with a key 4-2 win over then-No. 9 Princeton, thus capturing home-ice advantage for the first two rounds of the ECAC playoffs. A clean sweep of Princeton in a best-of-three quarterfinals series at Ingalls Rink set up the semifinal match with archrival Harvard that ended Yale's best-ever (16-15-1) season.

But Duggan thinks there are more good things to come under Witt's leadership. "I think this year definitely did set a new standard for the team, but I also think next year they will break all the records we set this year," says Duggan.