This year’s Howe Cup in Philadelphia was just as incredible as ever — a weekend filled with excitement, competitive squash, new friendships and positivity. The growth of women’s squash in the U.S. is amazing to see, and the Howe Cup is really the pinnacle of it, every year.
Open Squash had a full contingent of players who went along as part of the New York City women. Open Squash’s “NYC Racquettes” team gained silver in the D Division, losing out in a 3-2 battle during the final. Maddy Ramos, Open Squash’s junior program lead, only took up the game this year and was delighted to get the win as part of the team.
NYC Raquettes, silver medalists in the ‘D’ division, from left to right: Vanessa Li, Maddy Ramos, Andrea Viscogliosi, Vera Galvez and Lauren Mariano.
The Howe Cup, which draws hundreds of women each year from squash communities around the United States, dates back to 1928. The Howe Cup is named after two generations of women — Margaret Howe and her twin daughters, Peggy and Betty, who were U.S. champions in 1929, ‘32, ‘34, and then ‘52-’53, and ‘56-59, respectively. There are four divisions from A to D, and doubles play. 300 women competed on teams of five players across four divisions in the 90th edition of the Howe Cup. 112 players competed on 56 doubles pairings in the MPD doubles held alongside the Howe Cup – the largest women’s doubles event held over the course of the season.
We had “this is Howe we do it” T-shirts made, which people were wearing, and people were very excited about Open Squash at the tournament, describing our courts as amazing—particularly our glass court at the FiDi location, and our recent championship, the Open Squash Classic, which showcased it on Squash.TV.
The women brought poster cards and paint, and there were a lot of amazing homemade signs to support the different teams. Adriana Arcangel from Open Squash also came along to take photographs and support. For many of the women playing, it was so great to be playing a game of squash and to have people supporting.
Now we’re back from the cup, there’s a huge injection of enthusiasm amongst the women at Open Squash. We’re going to run a women’s round robin on Black Friday after Thanksgiving, and there’s a huge influx of interest.
If you’re a woman playing squash in New York City and you’d like to come to the Howe Cup next year, get in touch. The Howe Cup allows you the opportunity to make friends with other women in the squash community and builds a thriving sense of camaraderie and shared support. If you’ve not been before, we’d love to have you.
New York won gold in the A and B divisions, sending 12 teams across each of the four singles divisions, and eight teams in the doubles division. New York City was the only team this year to have finalists in every single division of the team tournament. Sending this many teams (and getting this many medals) would not be possible without all the hard work behind the scenes. Thank you to Paulina Rojek, New York’s City Coordinator for the tournament, who made sure everything ran smoothly.
Results: The “NYC Fab Five” dominated the ‘A’ division and came away with gold— Sydney Maxwell, Charlene Neo, Katherine Lynch, Min Jie Teh, and Helen Teegan returned the Howe Cup to New York City for the first time in eight years. “NYC Hot Shots” took 4th, and “NYC Golden Delicious” took 5th place. In the B Division, “NYC Big Nick Energy” also took gold. “NYC Squashettes” came 6th, “NYC Big Apple Boast” finished up at 10th, and “NYC Nicks” came in at 11th. We also had finalists in the C Division — with “NYC Lob Mob” just missing out on gold, but getting a very well-deserved silver medal. “NYC Aces” got 4th place, and “NYC Court Queens” came in at 6th. “NYC Squash Warriors” got 7th place. In the doubles, we also had 2 medalists, with Joanne Schickerling and Min Jie Teh, getting silver in the A Division, and Hope Johnson and Paulina Rojek getting silver in the B Division.