M. Squash snags a pair of victories

With wins over Denison, the nation's No. 9 ranked team, and Wesleyan, the Penn men's squash team advanced one step closer to its goal of finishing in the nation's top eight this year.

Despite the absence of their No. 5 and No. 6 players, the Quakers (3-4) defeated Denison 6-3 and Wesleyan 8-1 all in one day.

"We hadn't beaten [Denison] in a while, and we didn't know what to expect before the match," Penn senior co-captain John Griffin said. "It was a very, very good win for us."

The Red and Blue's strong performance against Denison was bolstered by the five freshmen in the line-up, who combined for four of the six wins.

Freshman Rich Repetto lead the charge with a 3-1 win at the No. 1 position. Also coming through for the Quakers were fellow freshmen Drew Crockett, Sean Lambert and Chris Miller.

Meanwhile, junior co-captain Elan Levy and sophomore Jason Lam each added a victory for the Quakers. Lam came back from two sets down to win, 3-2.

"The key was nailing down a few wins right from the beginning," Repetto said. "The guys were set, ready, and we knew what we had to do."

The Quakers did not have much time to celebrate their victory, however, as the Wesleyan match began immediately after the one against Denison.

"They actually started doing the intro during my match," Repetto said. "We didn't have a lot of energy but we pulled through."

Against Wesleyan, Griffin and junior Sam Miller, playing at No. 2, picked up their first wins of the season, with scores of 3-1 and 3-0, respectively.

The Quakers hope that their success against Denison will help propel them up the rankings before nationals in early March. Their next tests will be Amherst and Williams, this weekend at the Amherst Invitational. Williams is currently ranked No. 5.

"Williams beat Denison 6-3 as well, so our match with Denison is kind of a measure of how well we'll do against Williams," Griffin said. "It's going to be a tough match, but if we beat them, we move into the top eight."

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