Howe Cup 2025 – A Winning Weekend for Women’s Squash

For our favorite women’s team event of the year, the Howe Cup, we traveled all the way to Seattle — and came back with a few new additions to our trophy cabinet!

Open Squash sent a total of 12 players and 4 staff members to the 98th edition of the Howe Cup, and in their respective New York teams, they took home two titles, two second-place finishes, and a fourth-place finish. Not too bad!

The Howe Cup is separated into the A, B, C, and D divisions, with each team consisting of five players ranked 1–5, who play against the corresponding positions on opposing teams. Some divisions had full draws, while others played in pool stages followed by playoffs, with play beginning on Friday, November 7, and finals on Sunday, November 9. Teams came from all over the country, including Boston, Philadelphia, Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco.

Held at the Seattle Athletic Club Downtown, our players flew in on Thursday, November 6, and play began bright and early at 8 a.m. the next day. In the A draw, eight teams were separated into two pools of four, all battling it out for the coveted Howe Cup.

NYC A1, captained by our coach Ciara Richards and including Open Squash member Sydney Maxwell playing in the #1 spot, won two out of their three matches in the pool stages — even losing a player to injury and being down to four players after their first match. With their whole box tied up, the finalists were decided on a points countback, which meant that NYC A1 pipped past the other teams and into the finals!

On the other side of the A bracket, NYC A2, captained by our coach Adel Sammons and featuring Open Squash player Abigail Arader in the #3 spot, showed their dominance by winning all of their matches and storming through to an all-NYC final on Sunday.

Although no Open Squash players were representing, the B bracket had an NYC team battle through the pool stages to make the 1–3 pool playoff, beating the D.C. team 3–2 but just losing out to Boston 3–2 to eventually take home second place. Congratulations to NYC B!

In the C draw, a team captained by New York Squash’s Paulina Rojek and including Open Squash’s Becca Marcus, Gillian Francis, Queeny Cheng, and Wanni Tsai came second in their group in the pool stages, beating Seattle but losing to Columbus. They then found themselves in the 4–6 pool playoffs. NYC Hudson Rallies proved too strong for their pool, beating NorCal and Boston to sweep the pool and take home fourth place. Way to go, NYC!

The D draw saw a nearly all–Open Squash team storm through to the finals, captained by Vera Galvez and including our very own staff member Maddy Ramos, along with Open Squash’s Lauren Mariano and Helen Wu. After receiving a bye in the first round, they won a close quarterfinal 3–2 against Seattle and then stormed through the semifinals, beating Philly 5–0 to set up a Sunday final against NorCal.

Before the finals came the much-anticipated Saturday-night party, held at the Marriott, featuring food, drinks, a raffle, and plenty of dancing. It was announced that next year the Howe Cup will return to its usual home of Philadelphia — albeit on a different weekend (dates TBD). Excitement was also building for the Masters, which will be held at Open Squash in April 2026!

Back to the squash — the NYC D team proved their dominance by winning the final 4–1 against NorCal, with a special shout-out to our own Maddy Ramos, who didn’t lose a single game all weekend. Way to go, Maddy! We’re thrilled to bring home the title in the D division!

In the all-NYC final in the A division, NYC A2 ended up winning 3–2 in a highly competitive match, bringing the Howe Cup trophy back to NYC — and even more excitingly, home to Open Squash. Congratulations to team captain and our coach, Adel Sammons!

We are so proud of everyone who competed in this year’s Howe Cup, and we hope to see even more of you next year when it comes back closer to home in Philadelphia. We also want to thank the Howe Cup organizers for running what continues to be one of the most inspiring women’s squash events — showing us every year for nearly 100 years just how important women’s squash is and how much these events mean to everyone involved.