M. Squash wins 2 of 3

Penn's Ringe Courts have been around for 35 years. Rarely has it gone through as much wear and tear as it did this weekend. Through three men's matches and two women's matches, Penn's squash facilities still stand. The men's team (2-1 Ivy League, 3-2 overall) made good use of them with a successful 2-1 finish. The Quakers began the weekend with a strong showing against the Yale Elis. Although Penn lost 7-2, the score was not quite indicative of its play. The Quakers finished the first half of the match tied at 2-2, thanks to strong wins from sixth-seeded sophomore Ed Gross and eighth-seeded sophomore Craig Rappaport. Even though the Quakers came up winless in the second half of the match, they were in contention for most of the games. "They felt quite pleased coming out of the weekend," Penn coach Ned Edwards said. "Even after the Yale match, they were not that dejected. A year ago, Yale was much better than us, but this time around, even though they beat us, we were in the match. "[Sophomore Andrew] Braff was in his match, as was [freshman Juan] Dominguez. [No. 1 junior Steve] Scharff was beaten pretty badly. That was a little disappointing. [Freshman Leif] Burquist at No. 9 lost by a point in the fourth game. So there were three matches that we were in. Those guys thought that they could have won." "Even in our loss to Yale, we played better than previous years," Scharff said. "We had a chance to pull it off. I'm not disappointed. Against Yale, we had our chances. It would have been nice to pull an upset off, but at the same time we did lose only one match." The Quakers came back firing on Sunday, completely dominating Amherst (7-2) and Brown (8-1). The win against Amherst was especially satisfying considering Penn lost to the Lord Jeffs 5-4 last year and finished behind them in the national rankings. This weekend the Quakers pulled of five hard-fought 3-2 victories. That kind of clutch play is often unexpected of such a young team. The sole losses against Amherst came at the top two spots (Scharff and junior Vayu Garware). "The Amherst match was really terrific," Edwards said. "Vayu played a good match. He played very gutsy and lost in four. The games were really tough, but we pulled them out. They had a great commitment to winning. I was impressed by the nature of this team." The Quakers simply crushed Brown. The first eight Penn men won against some very tough competition. Scharff defeated Brown's No.1 player Alan Post in a spectacular match. Garware won a five-game match – 15-12 in the last game – even though he was suffering from painful cramps and was coming off an ankle injury. The two heralded freshmen, Dominguez and Bhullar, continued to shine. Both won their two matches against Brown and Amherst. Bhullar defeated a highly-experienced Amherst player in four games and Dominguez crushed his Brown opponent in three games. Gross and Rappaport were the only two Quakers to win all three of their matches on the weekend. This was a big step forward for Gross, who struggled last year as a freshman. Superstar Steve Scharff finished the weekend 1-2 and is now 2-3 overall on the year. Don't let the under .500 record deceive you, for he has gone up against some extremely stiff competition. The Quakers look up to their captain and his performance for the rest of the year will dictate the team's finish. "Steve is a little disappointed with the way he's played this year," Edwards said. "He's made some mistakes that have been unnecessary, some unforced errors that he can eliminate. But he was very happy with his win over Brown's Post." "Personally, I was coming off a back injury and hadn't played all week," Scharff said. "So, I felt a little rusty. I was hoping to do a little better. The victory against Post was a good win, but I felt I could've done a little better. Overall, this year, I expected a lot more of myself. I have to start winning some of these close matches that in the past I haven't won. I'm looking to pull off some big wins later on." The Quakers know they can beat the teams below them such as Amherst and Brown. And they know they have the ability to play with the teams above them such as Yale. So, if it can put it all together, this spirited Penn squad might just make some noise.