Eindoven (NLD) – The Canadian Women's Junior Team entered the team event as the 8th seed, placed in Pool A with heavily favoured Egyptian team, a young and inexperienced team from South African and the very determined Swiss team. Switzerland was seeded 9th in the event, and Canada knew they would have a good battle against them in order to meet their goal of finishing 2nd in the pool and advancing onto the semi-finals.
Eindoven (NLD) – The Canadian Women's Junior Team entered the team event as the 8th seed, placed in Pool A with heavily favoured Egyptian team, a young and inexperienced team from South African and the very determined Swiss team. Switzerland was seeded 9th in the event, and Canada knew they would have a good battle against them in order to meet their goal of finishing 2nd in the pool and advancing onto the semi-finals.
The order of play on Day one was 3-2-1 for Canada's match against South Africa. Coach Richard Yendell, wisely rested Chloe Chemtob as she had had a full week of squash with her last match being a 5 gamer against the Belgium number one, Tinne Gilis. Grace Thomas, Maddie OConnor and Sophie Mehta were lined up for the afternoon match. Canada, with both the O'Connor parents and Thomas family in a sea of red and white, cheering them on, had little trouble moving the ball around their opponents and keeping it deep, winning all three matches 3-0. Special mention to Grace's brother Luke Thomas who is not only cheering leader extraordinaire, but the dedicated “Team Canada mascot” for the Team event.
Day two of the team event was a busy one for Canada, facing Switzerland in the earlier session and Egypt later in the evening. With the Egyptian match looming, it was important for Canada to get the win against the Swiss, and the Canadians had little room for error if they wanted to come second in the pool. Chloe Chemtob as up first as racquet 1 and handled the match and the pressure to win with poise and determination over Cindy Merlo 3-0 (8, 8, 4). She ran everything down and remained totally focused on her game plan. She stretched her opponent from the backcourt to the frontcourt and tired her out. Canada was up by a match.
Sophie Mehta was next up, and was determined to take a 2-0 lead for Canada. Confident that could happen, as she lead 2-0, Celine Walser of Switzerland had other ideas and slowly and steadily crept back into the match. She put Mehta under pressure and forced some lose balls which Walser took full advantage and then took the match 3-2 ((5), (11), 9, 6, 6) Canada was now tied 1-1 with the tiebreaker match of Maddie O'Connor and Marija Shpakova.
Maddie was ready. She warmed up well and she had a game plan, which she followed to a tee. There was to be no doubt who was in control of this match as Maddie put pressure on Shpakova by volleying and driving deep and moving her opponent with some lovely short drops. O'Connor broke the tie by winning 3-0 (6, 4, 5) and Canada won the encounter 2-1.
Next up was the match agaist top seeded Egypt, whose team finished first through fourth in the individual event. Although it may seem difficult to get “excited” to play the current World Junior Squash Champion, Chloe had little choice but to go out and do the best she could against Nouran Gohar. Although there were many good rallies, Chloe was not match for Gohar this day, and lost 3-0. Maddie O'Connor played well against her Mariam Metwallyt, but relentless pace and good pressure on all loose balls gave Egypt their second win in three games. Grace ended the encounter against Salma Hany Ibrahim whose touch at the front of the court and pace to the back could not be matched.
With that, Canada did meet their goal to come second in the pool and advance onto the quarterfinals. Canada will now be guaranteed to finish at their tournament seed of eight, with hopes to meet or top their 2013 result of a fifth place finish. Canada starts on that quest tomorrow with their quarterfinal matchup against 2nd seed USA.
