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The GW Hatchet

AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904

The GW Hatchet

Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

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Men’s and women’s squash head coach announces retirement

Men’s and women’s squash head coach Wendy Lawrence will retire at the close of the academic year, according to a release Tuesday.

Lawrence led the Colonials for 12 years, signing on to the men’s program in 2007 and the women’s program in 2010. She became the first woman at GW to coach the men’s squad and the third woman in the nation to coach a men’s and women’s squash team.

“I honestly just really enjoyed it,” Lawrence said in the release. “I found that we were building something that I never thought would be as successful as it has been.”

In her 12 seasons at the helm of the men’s team, the group tabbed its first-ever championship at the C-Division Summers Cup in 2012. In 2018 and 2019, the Colonials won back-to-back B-Division Hoehn Cups under Lawrence’s leadership, earning them a program-high No. 9 ranking.

Throughout her tenure with the women’s team, the squad captured the C-Division Walker Cup in 2012, the B-Division Kurtz Cup in 2014 and reached its highest national ranking in program history at No. 7 during the 2014-15 season.

During the 2018-19 season, Lawrence also collected the 2019 Tournament of Champions Women’s Squash Leadership Award, the Wedgewood Trophy for her contributions to U.S. squash and the Feron Cup for sportsmanship.

All but one of GW’s six team national championships came under Lawrence.

Six players have earned All-American status under Lawrence. The program’s first All-American, Anna Gabriela Porras, spent her four years under Lawrence’s direction and earned a program-best 55 wins.

“She has celebrated us and all of our victories,” Porras said in the release. “It is our turn to look back on her career and be on the other side for once to celebrate all that she has done.”

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