Whistler local Sage Eberhard came up short in a tightly contested final match of the April 22 squash tournament at Jericho Tennis Club
In just her third tournament since returning to the sport after taking a few years off from competitive play, Whistler’s Sage Eberhard battled all the way to the finals of the BC Junior Gold Series squash tournament at the Jericho Tennis Club in Vancouver, from April 22 to 24.
While she ended up losing to old rival Katie Herring in the final, Sage believes this tournament—which saw her get revenge on the girl she lost to at the previous tournament before beating the tournament’s No. 2 seed in the semifinal—has put her back on the map in the province’s junior squash scene.
“In the tournaments previous to it I just felt like I would get this almost like block in my head that was like an ‘everyone’s judging you’ kind of thing. I felt pressured and judged and I knew it would just take me more tournaments to get rid of that and be able to play my game,” she said.
“So this tournament, [at Jericho], I was really able to show what I can do. I was playing a lot more aggressively, more confident and I knew that I could beat a lot of the girls there, or at least give them a good game, if I played my game that I know I can play. And so I think it really just showed in this tournament and I came out with second place so that was a good part about it.”
At just 16 years old, with her 17th birthday right around the corner, Eberhard has already been playing squash for nearly 10 years. Being the daughter of Rob Eberhard, the founding president of the Whistler Squash Club, the sport has always been a part of her life.
“Ever since I was a kid my parents would take me to the courts when they would play squash and I would sit by the court and watch them, and then when I started getting a little older, I started going on with a racket and playing with my dad,” said Sage.
“Then around 10 I went to my first competitive tournament, and ever since then I’ve been playing competitively. I joined a club after that, Evergreen down in Vancouver, which helped me a lot. It helped me connect with some of the other juniors and improved my game so much.”
But at around 13 years old, as all the other girls in her age group were training and hanging out multiple times a week in the city, while she was stuck in Whistler only able to make the drive down once or twice a week, Sage felt like she was losing ground on the other girls and the excitement and passion for the competitive side of the sport was beginning …….