In her first year at Bates College women’s squash player Cheri-Ann Parris, the 2009 Caribbean U-19 Junior Caribbean Champion from St. Phillip, Barbados, seems to have only gotten better since starting the season at the No. 1 spot in the Bobcats’ lineup.
Cheri-Ann wrapped up this season’s team competition in impressive fashion recently, going 3-0 individually for the Bobcats at the College Squash Association’s (CSA) Team Nationals at Yale. On Friday she defeated Amherst’s No. 1 player, Hayley Milbourn, by a 3-0 score in Bates’ 5-4 win over the Lord Jeffs. On Saturday, she provided the Bobcats’ only point in an 1-8 loss to Brown by defeating the Bears’ No. 1, Laura Pyne, also by a 3-0 score.
Then on Sunday Bates faced Mount Holyoke to determine 11th and 12th places in the final CSA rankings, and the match came right down to the No. 1 position in the lineup, where Parris came back from 0-2 down in games to notch a 3-2 win over the Lyons’ top player, Vidushi Gurunada.
The Bobcats finished the season at 19-8 and reversed the result of two years ago at CSA Team Nationals, when Mt. Holyoke topped Bates 5-4 to earn 11th place and relegate the Bobcats to 12th. It is Bates’ highest final ranking since placing 10th in 2007.
Parris now heads to CSA Individual Nationals at Trinity College in the first weekend in March, where according to head coach Pat Cosquer she will be ranked 30th in the USA. That means Parris will compete in the A Draw at the tournament, the first Bates woman to play there since 2002.
All Barbados wishes Cheri-Ann well as she continues to improve on the U.S. Collegiate circuit.
