US Junior World's Team Finishes 4th!
By Mark Allen
US Junior Women's Team Coach and
San Francisco Bay Club Head Squash Pro
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The US Junior Women's Team, L-R: Kristen Lange, Emery
Maine, Lily Lorentzen and Amanda Siebert. Photo by
Diana Betteridge
After the Individuals competitors headed out of Herentals, the remaining four of Lily Lorentzen, Kristen Lange, Amanda Siebert, and Emery Maine, refocused their efforts towards the start of the team event. Although the outcome of the individual tournament had resulted in some significant changes to the seeding for the team event, we remained unaffected, holding the 4th seed position.
After easy wins over Ireland and The Netherlands in Pool D by us and Canada, the top two teams in our pool would be determined on Thursday, July 28. Beating Canada for first place would have given us a bye at the first stage of the knock-out rounds and a guarantee that we would not come up against one of the top 3 seeds (Egypt, Hong Kong, and Malaysia) prior to the semifinal round.
Unfortunately though, we were outplayed and out-coached by Canada in that match. On a sweltering hot day, the ball was lively and the rallies long when Canada’s Neha Kumar took the court with Kristen Lange. Though the 21 minute first game was won by Lange 10-9, she was made to work too hard for it. Kristen fought to the end, but Kumar’s long drops from the back of the court eventually took their toll and secured a 3-1 opener. With Lily scheduled to play last, and a near certainty in the number 1 position, the outcome of the tie was on the shoulders of the No. 3 players—Amanda Siebert and Canada’s Stephanie Edminson. Edminson took the first two games, but this time the Canadian looked to be feeling the pace most. Amanda looked like she had turned the match around with a quick 7-3 lead in the third, but a small lapse in concentration and a spirited fight back by Edminson to take the game 9-7 secured the tie for Canada, 2-0. The match was a huge disappointment for us, and a good lesson in over confidence for both the players and coaches alike.
But the girls responded to the defeat by Canada superbly by picking themselves up the next morning and playing great squash to overcome a French team that had already defeated a higher seeded South African team to win Group F. Lily led things off against Camille Serme. A year ago, Lily might have succumbed to the pressure of the occasion—but not this year. She’s always been a naturally gifted athlete, and this World Championships she proved herself to be mentally tough too. She stuck to her game plan and, after dropping the first game, won the next three easily, 9/2, 9/1, 9/2.
Next on court was Amanda playing the French No. 3 Marjory Fosse. Coming off a hard-fought five-game deciding match the night before over South Africa, Fosse’s awkward, unorthodox style of play would make it tough for Amanda. But after dropping the first game 9/5, Amanda stayed focused and won in four to put us into the quarterfinals against Malaysia. Sweeping the first two matches meant Kristen was able to forfeit her match against the French No. 2, Soraya Renai, and save herself for the evening’s match against Malaysia.
To the surprise of no one, the Malaysian team were moved up to the No. 3 seed for the team tournament after three of their four players reached the last 16 of the individual event. And I am certain no one gave us a chance to win, and most of the other coaches were already predicting a Malaysia versus Egypt final.
But Team USA had other plans. Once again Lily stepped up to the plate and delivered exactly what was needed for Team USA—she defeated the Malaysian number 1 Sally Looi (as she had done in the individual event) 9/4, 9/7, 9/0. Next on court was our No. 3, Emery Maine, playing on the day of her 17th birthday. It was the match we thought we had a chance to win, but Emery was comprehensively beaten by Nabilla Atiffin 9/2, 9/1, 9/3. So on to the No. 2’s—with all the hopes of our team on Kristen Lange. Wee Wern Low, the Malaysian No. 2, is a very composed 14-year-old who defeated the tournament’s 5/8 seed Annie Au in the individual event. Kristen rose to the challenge and played the best squash I have ever seen from her in the first two games, winning them 9/4, 9/7. Kristen plays her best when her game opens up and she plays relaxed, uninhibited attacking squash. Yes, she can make mistakes, but Low found out that Kristen can also hit plenty of winners. However, in the third and fourth games, perhaps with the realization that she could win, she reverted to softer higher length balls, stopped volleying and became very tentative with her shot making. As a result, she lost these games 9/3, 9/4. But rather than wilting under the pressure when down 5/1 in the fifth, she let everything go again—and once she did she was awesome! She pulled back to 5-all, won a stroke for a 6/5 lead and then hit three clean kill shot winners from mid court to take the match. Then, in the words of Martin Bronstein, “Bedlam broke out as the team, the coaches, friends and parents jumped up and down and hugged each other in sheer delight.” It was a wonderful victory for the US Team and one of my proudest moments in 25 years of playing and teaching squash.
Once the celebrating was done, it was on to the semifinal against Hong Kong on the glass court. Leading off again would be Lily against Annie Au who I’d seen beat Lily 3-1 in the 2004 Pioneer Junior Open in Germany, and then again six months later in the Scottish Junior Open, 3-0. But this time, Lily was so much better than Au and she ran away with a win 9/2, 9/6, 9/1. Lily’s reversal of her two defeats the previous year are a good illustration of how hard she worked for the tournament, and how much she has improved under the guidance of her coach Rodney Martin.
Next on court was the previous day’s hero Kristen Lange, and though Joey Chan was an even better player than Wee Wern Low, we were all starting to believe that Kristen would be able to pull off a second dream result for USA. However, none of us realized just how exhausted Kristen was, both physically and emotionally from the night before. She went down 9/3, 9/4, 9/0, never getting herself moving well enough to trouble the Hong Kong second string.
So all was on the number 3’s. Physically rested, Amanda used her long reach and determination to make some great gets and crawl to an 8-5 lead in the first game. At 8-5 her opponent Ka Kei Chiu hit the ball three inches into the tin—a shot everyone saw down except the referee who called it good. Unfortunately, that proved to be her only chance to take the game as Chiu came back in one hand to win the game 10/8. Amanda never really recovered after that, and lost the next two games 9/2, 9/0.
Our goal from the start of the Championships was a top 3 finish—which would make us the highest finishing US Team in a World Championship event ever. We took our shot in the battle for bronze when we faced the England team, who had done poorly in the individual event but had lots of team depth. All four girls on their squad were the same level, making them weak at number one and very strong at number three. Nearly all the matches they played rested on their number two player Fiona Moverley, and she had withstood the pressure to win the deciding rubber against both New Zealand in the pool matches and Canada in the quarterfinals. Once again she proved to be England’s hero in defeating Kristen in the opening match.
Predictably, Lorentzen won the second match 3-0 over England No. 1 Rachel Willmott, which meant for the third time, Amanda took the court knowing she had to win for the USA to take the tie. It was a lot to expect though—Susannah King was undefeated at No. 3 in the team event for England, and she was well rested as she forfeited her semifinal match against Egypt after England were already 2-0 down. As expected, King imposed herself early on in the match and always looked too good for Amanda winning 9/5, 9/1, 9/4.
So the 2005 US Team finished in fourth position. It was a team that I am honored to have worked with and a team that I am very proud of—not so much because of where we placed, but more because of how we did it. The strength of character shown by the girls after the defeat by the Canadians was so impressive. The win against France was big, the victory over No. 3 seeds Malaysia was huge (and arguably the best ever win by a US Team in a world championship event), and we almost beat eventual winners Hong Kong. Thank you to everyone who played a part in our success.
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