Crimson roll at Ringe Courts

Harvard proved to be too much to handle on Saturday afternoon, taking down both the men’s and women’s squash teams at the Ringe Courts.

The No. 4 Penn women (6-3, 3-2 Ivy) lost a heartbreaker to the Crimson (7-0, 3-0 Ivy), who are the top-ranked team in the nation.

The Red and Blue got off to a great start, winning four out of the first six matches. It looked as if an upset was inevitable.

However, Harvard rallied late, taking the last three matches — thus clinching the 5-4 victory for the Crimson.

Annie Madeira, Pia Trikha, Yarden Odinak and Chloe Blacker won their matches for the Quakers.

Odinak and Trikha retained their perfect records for the season, improving to 9-0.

The men’s squash team (4-6, 1-4 Ivy) suffered the same outcome, losing 8-1 to the No. 6 Harvard squad.

The matches were much closer than the score would suggest. The Quakers lost three matches in five sets and four other matches in four sets.

Penn’s lone victory was the win by Justin Ang. Ang dropped the first set but rallied to take the next three.

A deflated coach Jack Wyant was disappointed with the way some of his players performed overall.

“They were all competitive matches, which is a positive thing to take from the matches,” Wyant said. “But, they were tougher than we were, they kept their cool better than we did, and they won the big points. That was the difference.”

Even so, Wyant felt his teams lost an opportunity to pick up a big upset win.

“I think we could have won. I know we could have won,” Wyant said. “They just played better.”

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