No. 6 Virginia Defeats Tufts 8-1 in Howe Cup Opener

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – The No. 6 Virginia women’s squash team picked up an 8-1 victory over No. 11 Tufts in the round of 16 at the 2025 CSA National Collegiate Squash Team Championships on Thursday (March 6) at the Arlen Specter US Squash Center.

The Cavaliers (10-5) advance to the quarterfinals to take on No. 3 Princeton on Friday (March 7) at 11 a.m.

Princeton won the regular season meeting against the Cavaliers 8-1 on February 23.

Virginia started the match strong against Tufts (10-8), winning at one, four, and eight to jump out to a quick 3-0 lead. The Jumbos got on the board with a victory at three, but the Cavaliers took the rest of the matches to win 8-1.

Grad students Meagan Best and Maria Moya both delivered dominant 3-0 victories for the Hoos. Senior Maureen Foley and sophomore Clare Minnis also won by 3-0 scores.

Virginia’s best-ever finish at the Howe Cup came in 2023 when the team finished fifth.

MATCH NOTES

• Freshman Claire Pellegrino dropped her first game at nine but rallied to win her match and improve to an undefeated 11-0 on the season
• Junior Lina Tammam and freshman Maryam Mian split the first two games of their matches but picked up 3-1 victories at two and five. Tammam improves to 10-3 this year
• Clare Minnis improves to 10-4 this season

#6 Virginia 8, #11 Tufts 1

1 | Meagan Best (VA) def. Vharshamithraa Dinesh (TUFTS) 11-3, 11-4, 11-4
2 | Lina Tammam (VA) def. Maria Arseniev (TUFTS) 11-5, 11-13, 11-8, 11-5
3 | Riddhi Joshi (TUFTS) def. Maria Min (VA) 11-7, 10-12, 11-2, 11-7
4 | Maria Moya (VA) def. Sohni Vermani (TUFTS) 11-4, 11-3, 11-4
5 | Maryam Mian (VA) def. Anika Goyal (TUFTS) 11-3, 4-11, 11-9, 11-6
6 | Maureen Foley (VA) def. Nieve Monderer (TUFTS) 11-5, 11-3, 11-7
7 | Clare Minnis (VA) def. Aleezah Burhan (TUFTS) 11-3, 11-7, 11-4
8 | Nina Hashmi (VA) def. Indira Moshi (TUFTS) 11-5, 11-5, 9-11, 11-7
9 | Claire Pellegrino (VA) def. Chloe Bergam (TUFTS) 8-11, 11-7, 11-7, 11-8