Teams: Women's Squash: Team Overview

The Tufts University women's squash program has a rich history. The team's schedule includes New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) rivals and Ivy League powerhouses. The Jumbos play an exciting winter schedule against teams such as Stanford, Brown, Trinity, Amherst and Williams. The women's team finished the 2006-2007 season ranked 18th nationally, up five spots from the previous season. The team made the finals of the Walker Division at the national championships, known as the Howe Cup.

The team practices at Tufts, Belmont Hill and Harvard. In recent years the team also has made January trips to Bermuda, Bahamas, Grand Cayman and Canada. The team also prepares with on-court pressure drilling, tactical situational games and technical work. Non-racquet and off-court practice includes ghosting, interval training, strength and conditioning and flexibility training. The team also works with mental toughness training and tactical court awareness exercises. The holistic training philosophy for the Jumbos involves emotional, tactical/cognitive, physical, and technical training. The Tufts program is centered on complete development of the student-athlete and a healthy relationship with communication between players and coaches.

The 2009-2010 team is led by senior captain Stef Marx and junior captain Valerie Koo. Also making an impact will be sophomores Mercedes Barba and Alix Michael, who are expected to play in the top half of the line-up. Seniors Sairah Mahmu, Erin Bruynell and junior Erin O'Donnell also return from last year. There are plenty of newcomers who all have some good experience. Jesse Rubine, Ushashi Basu, Madison Newbound are all first year students. Sophomore Alyse Vinoski also has had experience playing junior or prep school squash. Senior Lauren Lanster adds to the team depth as well as newcomers Alexandra Beretta and Mengmen Wang, both sophomores.

As members of the NESCAC, Tufts is part of the nation's most competitive small college conference academically and athletically. The NESCAC is a group of highly selective liberal arts colleges and universities that share an academics-first philosophy for intercollegiate athletics. Tufts squash players train both on and off the court to be future leaders. Recent graduates have gone on to graduate, business and medical schools, as well as successful professional and business careers. Over the last four seasons, the team led all schools nationally in the total number of scholar-athletes.

Doug Eng, the Director of Squash, holds three degrees from Tufts (BSChE 1984, MS in 1987 and PhD in 1990), and an EdD in sport pedagogy/psychology from Boston University. He was the assistant coach at Tufts in 1992-93 and has taught and coached tennis and squash for nearly 20 years. Eng holds certifications from the United States Squash Racquets Association (Level II) and the Professional Squash Association. He has worked with dozens of regionally and nationally ranked players. He has served on the board of several different regional and national organizations and committees in squash and tennis. Eng lectures and writes on sport sciences for squash and tennis organizations and magazines, and is an expert on sport psychology and coaching theory. Over the past two years, he has served as head coach of the men's tennis team and has previously also coached the women's tennis team.

Assistant Coach Belkys Velez hails from Ecuador and plays on the Women's International Squash Players Tour (WISPA) tour. Her highest ranking was 84. Velez previously coached squash at SquashBusters, Maugus Club, and Newton Country Day. Her primary focus will be the women's team although she still finds time to help out with the men's team.

Located right outside of Boston, Tufts offers a well-rounded collegiate experience to student-athletes. Within its picturesque small-college campus, Tufts is a major university with "an unprecedented diversity of programs, exceptional faculty and staff, and bright and talented students," according to President Lawrence S. Bacow. The Athletics Department sponsors a varsity program of 28 sports that is among the most competitive in the NCAA's Division III. Tufts finished 10th in the 2009 Learfield Sports Directors' Cup, which awards points based on NCAA performances. The University's proximity to a world-class city renowned for its academic institutions is also a major draw.