The sixth annual Women in Sports Day presented by Comcast NBCUniversal will be hosted Wednesday October 9 preceding the quarterfinals. The U.S. Open pioneered gender parity in prize money for squash professionals in 2013 and is a leader in the drive for equality in the professional game. Women in Sports Day celebrates these values and the women moving the sport forward and supports US Squash’s vision of ensuring girls and women can advance their lives through squash. 

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Schedule

Wednesday, October 9

• 4:00-5:00pm Panel Discussion: Gender Equity & Women’s Sport: Shifting the Landscape and Participation
• 5:00-600pm Reception: Remarks begin at 5:15pm
• 6:00-9:30pm Quarterfinal Matches: WiSD Presentations will take place on the ASB GlassCourt throughout the evening

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*Additional programming may be added to this event.

Ticket Packages

Women in Sports Day proceeds will benefit US Squash’s Women’s  Fund, helping build women’s squash programming to emerging and current markets around the country. Purchases of 8 or more tickets are eligible for group pricing, please reach out to tickets@usopensquash.com.

Women in Sports Day Package-$130

Join the Women in Sports Day Reception including complimentary hors d’oeuvres and open bar, followed by watching the quarterfinals matches with a Club Level Ticket. The U.S. Open pioneered gender parity in prize money in 2013, and Women in Sports Day supports the continued drive towards equality in squash while celebrating leaders who make it possible for girls and women to advance their lives through sport. A portion of ticket sale proceeds benefits the US Squash Women’s Squash Fund. 

Women in Sports Day Student Package-$50

Join the Women in Sports Day Reception including complimentary hors d’oeuvres and soft drinks, followed by watching the quarterfinals matches with a Club Level Ticket. The U.S. Open pioneered gender parity in prize money in 2013, and Women in Sports Day supports the continued drive towards equality in squash while celebrating leaders who make it possible for girls and women to advance their lives through sport. A portion of ticket sale proceeds benefits the US Squash Women’s Squash Fund. 

Student Package Tickets are available to any currently-enrolled student of college age or younger. 

Women in Sports Day Back Wall Premium Package-$175

Join the Women in Sports Day Reception including complimentary hors d’oeuvres and open bar, followed by watching the quarterfinals matches with a Back Wall Premium ticket directly behind the ASB GlassCourt to brush shoulders with the world’s best squash players and coaches. The U.S. Open pioneered gender parity in prize money in 2013, and Women in Sports Day supports the continued drive towards equality in squash while celebrating leaders who make it possible for girls and women to advance their lives through sport. A portion of ticket sale proceeds benefits the US Squash Women’s Squash Fund. 

Women in Sports Day Supporting Patron-$500

Patronage includes two (2) tickets to the Women in Sports Day Reception, two (2) Quarterfinals Club Level Tickets, complimentary hors d’oeuvres and open bar, two (2) souvenir vouchers, and name recognition in the U.S. Open program. Your patron package supports US Squash women’s access and recognition initiatives while expanding the reach of squash to enrich women’s experiences in the sport. A portion of Women in Sports Day proceeds go to benefit the US Squash Women’s Squash Fund. $300 of your contribution is tax deductible. 

Women in Sports Day Leadership Patron-$1,000

Patronage includes two (2) tickets to the Women in Sports Day Reception, two (2) Quarterfinals President’s Suite tickets complimentary hors d’oeuvres and open bar, two (2) souvenir vouchers, and name recognition in the U.S. Open program. Your patron package supports US Squash women’s access and recognition initiatives while expanding the reach of squash to enrich women’s experiences in the sport. A portion of Women in Sports Day proceeds go to benefit the US Squash Women’s Squash Fund. $700 of your contribution is tax deductible. 

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*Back Wall tickets include access to the Club Level.

Awards

2019 Honorees

Jocelyne and Monique are 2018 Olympic Gold Medalists, two-time Olympic Silver Medalists and six-time IIHF World Champions. The sisters were the first set of twins to ever play on the United States Women’s National Hockey Team. At 12-years-old, Jocelyne and Monique led an all-boys hockey team to the North Dakota State Championship. The sisters later went on to play at the University of Minnesota where Jocelyne finished freshman year as All-WCHA First Team, and Monique finished the year as the WCHA Scoring Champion and WCHA Rookie of the Year. Jocelyne and Monique then returned home to play at the University of North Dakota. The sisters helped lead Team USA’s fight for equal pay in the spring of 2017 before the IIHF World Championships. Currently, they are both contributors to the Know Your Value platform, which helps to promote principles of gender equality across all industries. Jocelyne and Monique also volunteer with the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation, the largest youth hockey organization for disadvantaged youth in the country. They are committed to growing the sport, to help increase participation and opportunities. With the support of partners like Comcast and CCM, Monique continues to help pave the way for future Gold Medalists.

 

 

Molly Pierce, one of the most accomplished leaders in U.S. squash history, will be awarded the Achievement Bowl during Women in Sports Day. Growing up in Philadelphia, Pierce has been involved in squash for decades. She has served on the board of SquashSmarts for nineteen years, most recently serving as the board’s secretary and chair of governance.  She has also provided major financial support for the program.  She is an active tournament director, member of US Squash’s doubles committee, captain of Team USA for the Can-Am Cup, a board member for the Cynwyd Club and Germantown Cricket Club and an avid supporter and participant in local, regional and national tournaments. On the court, Pierce is an exceptional and avid doubles player. An eight-time national doubles champion, she won the women’s 40+ title in 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001 and 2002 with Jody Law; the mixed 50+ with Jamie Heldring in 2010; the women’s 50+ in 2012 with Tracy Greer; and the women’s 60+ in 2018 with Jody Law.

2018 Honorees

Julieanne Harris, the director of squash at Philadelphia Cricket Club, will be awarded the Achievement Bowl during Women in Sports Day. She started the squash team at Agnes Irwin School and was the assistant women’s team coach at Penn before coming to Philadelphia Cricket Club in 1992. Since then, she has led one of the country’s most successful junior programs. Nine of her Philly Cricket players have made Team USA’s national junior team and many more have been national champions in singles and doubles. She has also twice coached the U.S. junior women’s team at the World Junior Championships, in Norway in 1991 and Malaysia in 1993. Harris is an extraordinarily accomplished player with several singles and doubles national titles from the U.S. and Canada.

 

 

 

Alexandra Frazier will be honored with the Women in Sports Day Special Recognition award. Through her work including leadership of Women Golfers Give Back and the Valentine Founders Frazier has supported the ongoing development of women and girls through sport and social change. Women Golfers Give Back, founded by Frazier, to date has raised $900,000 to support programs in the Philadelphia area promoting junior girls’ golf. Her efforts, “encourage personal development through unique opportunities for skill-building, playing and competing.”

2017 Honorees

Jenny Duncalf will receive a special Women in Sports Day recognition award. Duncalf, the world No.29 from England, has been the President of the PSA women’s division since the historic merger of the men’s and women’s tour two and a half years ago. “During this critical time of transition in the pro tour, Jenny has been essential,” said Ashley Bernhard, the deputy chairman of the PSA. “She has been a brilliantly thoughtful leader. Her dedication to equality, equal prize money and equal access on the pro tour has helped bring squash to a new level and made it a leader in the global sports community.”

Dr. Deborah Antoine will be the keynote speaker at Women in Sports Day. Since January, Antoine has served as the CEO of the Women’s Sports Foundation. The WSF was founded by Billie Jean King in 1974 and is one of America’s most important institutions dedicated to creating leaders by ensuring all girls have access to sports.  A nationally-ranked tennis player, Antoine had previously served as the President and CEO of New York Junior Tennis & Learning, the nation’s largest tennis and education program that serves more than 75,000 children in the five boroughs of New York City.

 

 

 

 

 

Gail Ramsay will be awarded the Achievement Bowl during Women in Sports Day. One of the most accomplished women in U.S. squash history, she captured four straight national individual intercollegiate titles at Penn State, one of just three players to ever dominate college squash to that extent. She won three National Doubles title and seven National Mixed Doubles titles. From 1988 to 1994 she was the coach of the women’s team at Williams and since 1994 she’s coached the women’s team at Princeton. Her teams have won five national titles and four times a player of hers has taken the individual title.

 

2016 Honorees

Maria Toorpakai will be awarded the President’s Cup at Women in Sports Day. Toorpakai, age twenty-five, is ranked world No. 61 and has won seven PSA tour events. Her incredibly harrowing, powerful and ultimately inspiring life story is now well-known around the world. Toorpakai grew up in Waziristan, Pakistan and defied Islamic fundamentalists in order to play squash. She came in third at the 2009 World Juniors. This past spring, her memoir, A Different Kind of Daughter, was published to great acclaim, and Toorpakai appeared on numerous radio and television shows and in newspapers and magazines. Toorpakai also spoke at conferences in London and New York, including the United Nations’ Women’s International Forum 2016. In September the Toronto International Film Festival is screening the world premiere of a major, eighty-minute documentary about Toorpakai. Now titled Girl Unbound, it is the product of five years of filming in Toronto, where she is based, and Pakistan. The President’s Cup is the highest individual award at US Squash. Inaugurated in 1966, the award is given to men and women who have made substantial contributions of the game of squash. Toorpakai is the forty-fifth recipient of the President’s Cup and the second, after Hashim Khan in 1978, to hail from Pakistan.

The 2015 winner of the Achievement Bowl, AJ Copeland, will be honored at WISD. Since 2007 Copeland, who played varsity squash at Brown, has served on the board of the National Capitol Squash district association as a vice president for women play, and for the past seven years she has also been a co-chair of US Squash’s Women’s Committee. The Achievement Bowl is US Squash’s oldest award, having been given out annually since 1955.

2015 Honorees

 

In 2014, Alicia McConnell was honored with US Squash’s highest individual award, the President’s Cup. She was recognized for her achievements at the 2015 Women in Sports Day Reception. McConnell won the 1980 World Juniors in Sweden. In one month in 1981 she won the national juniors, national intercollegiates and U.S. Nationals—a sweep of titles no one else has accomplished before or since in the same year. She won seven straight U.S. national singles titles and eleven straight U.S. national doubles titles. McConnell was the first American woman to make a deep impact on the international pro women’s tour, reaching world No.14. She played for Team USA in six world championships and, in the 1995 Pan American Games, she helped secure a silver medal for the women’s team. After retiring from singles play, she worked as a teaching pro at the Heights Casino in Brooklyn and was the head coach for Team USA’s national junior squad. In 2000 she was a member of the inaugural class of inductees into the U.S. Squash Hall of Fame.

 

 

 

Jen Gabler was recognized at the 2015 Women in Sports Day as the recipient of the 2014 Achievement Bowl, US Squash’s oldest award. Playing under Hall of Fame coach Aggie Kurtz at Dartmouth College, Gabler went from a raw junior varsity player her first year to the varsity’s MVP her senior year. Gabler is an avid squash player—she built her own court in her home, written profiles on women in squash for Squash Magazine, acted as tournament chair for the Howe Cup, played in the 50+ draw at the 2014 World Masters and currently serves as the women’s committee chair with this year’s Howe Cup tournament director, Kim Clearkin. Gabler always encourages juniors and adults alike to come hit with her, try out squash, and learn to love the game.

2014 Honorees

Anne Farrell, the longest-serving employee of US Squash in the organization’s 110-year history, was honored with the 2014 W. Stewart Brauns, Jr. Award. Farrell worked as office manager at US Squash from October 1979 to September 2005. This twenty-six year tenure spanned a transformative era that Farrell helped direct and sustain. Because of her enthusiasm, attention to detail and warm personality, she led every administrative and clerical effort of the Association. For decades she was literally the voice of squash, as she answered the telephone. Despite the meteoric growth of squash around the country, Farrell was renowned not only knowing each US Squash member’s name but who they were: their spouses, birthdays, children, jobs. Even though she didn’t play squash or go to tournaments, it was this personal touch that made her a legendary fixture in the game.

 

 

 

Former World No. 5 and WSA President, Kasey Brown, was recognized by US Squash at Women in Sports Day for her accomplishments and impact on women’s squash throughout her career. The 2014 U.S. Open was Brown’s final tournament before retiring from the pro tour. After a career spanning a decade of globetrotting, Brown planned her return home to New South Wales, Australia by moving from her Greenwich, CT residence for a new career promoting squash to players of all ages and abilities. Throughout her career, Brown competed at the very top level of the sport against world No. 1 Nicol David and world No. 2 Laura Massaro. In the 2011 U.S. Open in the first year that the tournament was held at the Drexel University Daskalakis Center, she eliminated David in the quarterfinals losing in the finals to Massaro.