Western Mass Squash

Sheffield, MA — Former Berkshire squash standouts were very much in the mix this past weekend as Hamilton College hosted the Liberty League Championships at their all-new 10-court Little Squash Center in Clinton, NY. Ashley Eldredge (2004), the Dean of Berkshire’s current collegiate squashers, came into the weekend boasting a 37-20 career record for St. Lawrence University. Ori Goldman (2005) was determined to avoid anything like a sophomore slump at The University of Rochester, while Courtney Kollmer (2006) hoped to make her mark as a freshman at Hamilton College.

Ashley Eldredge, MVP and New England Interscholastics finalist for Berkshire’s 2003-4 girls’ team, slugged her way to a 2-1 record for St. Lawrence. Playing at the first position over the weekend, Eldredge knocked off the best that Vassar and Hamilton had to offer in methodical fashion. Her only loss came in a tough five-gamer against William Smith. Eldredge is one of very few seniors on a team that is struggling to replace some key players lost to injury, graduation and semester abroad. Eldredge reports that things are going well for her at St. Lawrence and that, rather than thinking too much about the future at this point, she’s just looking to enjoy her final season and her senior year.

Also notching two wins for his team was Ori Goldman, captain and MVP of the 2004-5 boys’ team and 7th place finisher at the New Englands. Goldman fought his way to a 2-2 record in the sixth position for the University of Rochester, earning victories against Vassar and Hobart but falling to Hamilton and St Lawrence. Goldman notes that he is very happy at Rochester, where he has found success in the classroom and on the squash courts. Relative to prep school squash, he reports that the practices tend to be a bit more technical in nature, especially since the arrival of former top ten professional Martin Heath as Rochester’s head coach. Goldman misses classmates and teachers from “under the mountain,” and he has yet to find anything approaching the thrill of Headmaster for a Day that he enjoyed at Berkshire.

Also thriving beyond the shadow of the mountain is Courtney Kollmer, captain and MVP of the 2005-6 girls’ team captain and 4th place finisher at the New Englands. Kollmer, who is enjoying life atop the hill in Clinton, played to a perfect 3-0 record in the fourth position for Hamilton, helping her team win their first-ever Liberty League title. Kollmer came away with easy victories against William Smith and St. Lawrence but had to dig deep for a tremendous five-game win against Vassar. She has been surprised by the amount of off-court work they do as a team, including yoga and cross-training, and she absolutely loves the new squash facility at Hamilton. She misses her old schoolmates and squashmates, she admits, and has not yet found faculty kids to replace those of Berkshire who are near and dear to her.

As a whole, Berkshire’s former squashers came away from the Liberty League tournament with an impressive 7-3 record – a pretty good way to start the 2006-7 campaign!

Guest writer A. J. Kohlhepp has coached boys’ and girls’ varsity squash at Berkshire. In addition to his day job as English Chair, he is the director of SquashDoc Summer Camps.

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