Cavalier Corner

December 2021

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24 CAVALIER CORNER EMMA JINKS Fourth-Year • Squash Emma Jinks joined the Virginia women's squash team in 2018-19, its second year as a varsity sport at UVA. She came into the program as the top-ranked junior and a four-time national champion in her na- tive Canada, and was immediately thrust into the top position in the lineup, playing against the best player on every team the Cavaliers faced. She tallied 14 wins her rookie year and kept the momentum going her second- year season by becoming the first female All-American in program history. After not having a season during the 2020-21 COVID lockdown, the Cavaliers are back on the court this year, with Jinks leading the squad as a co-captain. UVA has burst back onto the scene, rising to No. 5 in the national rankings as of early December, its highest-ever position, after picking up wins against Ivy League power- houses Columbia, Penn and Cornell. Jinks battled for a five-game win in her matchup against Andrea Toth of No. 3 Princeton. Prior to this season, no Cavalier had ever picked up a win against a Tiger. Her early season success led to her being named the College Squash Association Player of the Month for November. "Being part of the UVA squash team has been one of the most incredible experi- ences of my life," Jinks said. "Growing up in a small town in Prince Edward Island, Canada, I didn't have many opportunities to play squash as a part of a team, and it was rare to find someone my age I could play with. "I was competing at the highest level as an individual, but my favorite part about squash was getting to travel and meet other squash players my age who loved the sport, and whom I could relate to. "When I joined the UVA squash family, it felt like Christmas morning every single time I got to train with my team. I no longer had to travel thousands of kilometers to see my squash friends, and what was even better — I got to see them almost every day!" The sociology major, who has worked as an undergraduate research assistant for professor Brad Wilcox's National Marriage Project, plans to take a year off after gradu- ating this May but wants to return to school to study occupational therapy. She likes the holistic approach of the discipline and wants to be able to "develop a more pro- found relationship" with her patients than a general practitioner would by working with them progressively over the course of a few months or the length of their treatment. — Melissa Dudek • Photo by Matt Riley/ courtesy UVA Athletics EXCEPTIONAL UVA STUDENT-ATHLETES

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