New Haven, Conn. - The visiting Trinity College Bantams swept the first and third waves to earn a 7-2 victory over the Yale University Bulldogs in the opening round of the College Squash Association (CSA) National Team Championship Tournament (Howe Cup) at Brady Courts this afternoon.  Trinity, seeded No. 4 in the eight-team field, improves to 12-4 and will face top-seeded Harvard, which blanked No. 8-seeded Columbia today, 9-0, in the Howe Cup Semifinals tomorrow at noon at Yale.  The Bulldogs drop to 11-5 and will entertain Columbia in a consolation match tomorrow at noon.  Trinity wins on the road at Yale for the second time this season and beats the Bulldogs for the sixth time in a row overall.  The Bantams will look to avenge a 7-2 setback against the Crimson in Hartford on January 28th in tomorrow's match. Trinity has been to the Howe Cup Finals in each of the last three years and won the title in 2014.

Trinity took a 3-0 lead thanks to a 3-0 win by first-year Jenny Haley (Caldicot, Wales) in the No. 6 spot and 3-1 victories by sophomores Julia LeCoq (Creteil, France) and Karolina Holinkova (Krnov, Czech Republic) at No. 3 and No. 9, respectively.  Yale scored its first point in the second shift when first-year Celine Yeap (Penang, Malaysia) downed Bantam sophomore Raneem Sharaf (Giza, Egypt), 2-0, at the No. 2 position, while Trinity sophomore Salma El Defrawy (Cairo, Egypt) and Bulldog sophomore Jocelyn Lehman (Greenwich, Conn.) split the other two matches in the middle wave to make the score, 4-2, with three matches left to play.  Trinity clinched it on a 3-0 win in the No. 7 spot by senior co-captain Sachika Balvani (Mumbai, India) and scored the final two points moments later on a 3-0 win by junior Anna Kimberley (Colchester, England) and a 3-1 win by senior co-captain Kanzy El Defrawy (Cairo, Egypt) at the top of the ladder.

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