The Zebras traveled to Philadelphia for the National High School Squash Championships, leaving on Thursday and returning late on Sunday. After their triumph in the C division at New Englands, they were moved up to the B division at Nationals, where they were seeded 15 out of 16 teams. In the first round Friday morning, they played a rematch with neighboring Groton, the #2 seed. It was a close match, but though Anjali Mehta ('27) at #1 and Ashwini Menon ('25) at #6 both won their matches, playing spectacularly to beat higher-rated opponents, and though Arya Mehta ('24) at 2 and Claire Ryu ('27) at #5 came close, ultimately the #2 seed prevailed 5-2. Thus, MX moved to the consolation bracket. to vie for places 9-16 in the division. In the next match, the Zebras played a rematch with neighboring Nobles, the #10 seed. In the first round of matches, Mia Nolin ('27) prevailed at #7 in three games, while Nobles prevailed in four games at #1. Then Nobles prevailed at #2 in three games, while Claire Ryu prevailed in three games at #5--so the match stood at 2 apiece for each team. In the next round, Ema Edwards ('24) played a heroic match, coming ever so close to getting MX the third point, but ultimately Nobles prevailed in five long games--and things looked good for them. However, in a reversal of an earlier loss this season, Katie Chen ('26) dispatched the Nobles #3 with laser-like precision in three quick games, so the match stood at 3 points a piece. Ashwini Menon, energized to play the deciding match, covered the court for every shot and won at #6 in three close games--thus, MX triumphed 4-3, and moved on to the consolation semifinals.

In the semifinals on Saturday morning, the team played Hackley, the #3 seed due to their remarkable strength in the top 4 positions. However, the first match on was the #1 match, and Anjali Mehta had another spectacular match, prevailing in three long hardfought games, to break up the Hackley strength in positions 1-4 with an MX victory. With its greater strength down the ladder, it looked like MX's match at that point. However, playing at the same time, Mia Nolin had to win a long four-game match against the Hackley #7--Mia prevailed in a tight fourth game to give the Zebras two points out of two in the first round. In the next round Ashwini Menon again won 3-0 at #6, to push her record for the tournament to 3-0. After Hackley's triumphs at #2, #3, and #4 it all came down to Claire Ryu at #5--Claire played wonderful point after wonderful point, using all four corners of the court, to prevail against her skilled opponent in three games, win the match 4-3, and send MX onto the consolation finals on Sunday, to play against Taft, the #8 seed.   

Sunday afternoon's match was the closest of the season, and it all came down to a single point difference between the teams. MX had the advantage at the #6 position where Ashwini again won 3-0, completing the tournament 4-0, winning 12 games and losing only 1, while Taft had the advantage at the #3 position. In the other 5 positions, the match was so close that Taft won 196 points and MX 195! That single point likely made the difference, as Taft ended up winning the match 4-3. The teams were so evenly matched at those 5 positions that every match was tight in almost every game, and scores of 14-12, 13-11, and 12-10 were common. It was a wonderfully competitive and exciting end to a great weekend of squash. In her final MX match, senior captain Arya Mehta played her best match of the season, masterfully using her strength along the backhand wall, her court coverage, and her excellent short game to prevail 3-0 against a higher-rated opponent. With that exciting, competitive match with Taft, in which the team played its heart out, the tournament and the season came to an end. The team ended up 10th in the division and 26th in the country overall.