Not too long ago, I was surprised to learn that my niece was on the squash team at Wesleyan University, where she’s been studying since 2010.  We grew up in Hawaii, and nobody in Hawaii plays squash.  The weather is great year round there, so we play sports outdoors, not in an enclosed, indoor space.  But my niece must be something of a natural athlete, as she picked up the sport quickly; in time, her hard work and determination earned her a spot on the varsity roster.

I don’t really follow any sports teams, but I occasionally check on the status of Wesleyan’s teams.  This casual perusing of their website paid off recently, as I learned that my niece would be coming with her team to play in the Pioneer Valley Invitational this weekend, an annual tournament hosted by Amherst College, Mount Holyoke College, and Smith College.

From the printed program, I learned that there were ten men’s and ten women’s teams competing (not necessarily from the same schools).  Yesterday, the Wesleyan women played Columbia but lost all their matches to that powerhouse.  Today, I arrived at the Mount Holyoke athletic complex shortly before 1 pm, when the matches were scheduled to start.  Wesleyan would play Mount Holyoke first, and then Franklin and Marshall later in the afternoon.

I know nothing about squash, and it was actually quite interesting to watch my niece play and try to figure out the rules from the scoreboard.  Here’s what I learned:

• Eleven points wins the game
• Three out of five games wins the match
• Points are scored whether you’re serving or not
• The ball is allowed to bounce only once
• The winner of a point gets the next serve
• You can’t obstruct your opponent
• A referee and a scorekeeper officiate the game from above the court

My niece won her match against her Mount Holyoke opponent, 3 games to 1.  (In fact, the Wesleyan team did quite well overall.)  I suppose I could have stayed to watch the next round, but as I glanced out the windows from time to time, I could see the snow starting to fall heavily as the afternoon waned, and I thought it best that I get on the road home.

Here are a few photos I took–again, not very good due to the lighting:

Mt Holyoke and Wesleyan teams are introduced

I’m watching from above the court

I’m court-side with the MHC player in the foreground

My niece awaits a serve

My niece scores a point

I probably should have stayed longer, as it took me two and a half hours to get home, due to all the accidents on both 116 and Route 9.