W. Squash overcomes setbacks to still go 1-2

BY JASON BRENNERBY JASON BRENNERDaily Pennsylvanian Sports WriterBefore every match it seems like fate doesn't want the Penn women's squash team to have a successful season. By the end of the match, however, it appears that destiny is on the side of the 4-3 Quakers (0-2 Ivy League). First, the team lost top-seeded senior Aimee La Gorce to a hamstring injury last week. Quickly overcoming the loss of their number one player, the Quakers won their matches against Wesleyan and Haverford. This weekend the team played three home matches against Yale, Amherst and Brown at Ringe Courts. Not only did the Quakers play two of these matches without La Gorce, but senior co-captain and No. 2 seed Wendy Sullivan also suffered an illness and played at less than her full potential. In fact, she had to forfeit her match against Amherst because of her sickness. Nevertheless, the Quakers managed to go 1-2 on the weekend and beat Amherst by a convincing score of 7-2. La Gorce played at the No. 1 position against Amherst but suffered a defeat to freshman Harriet Ells. Ells, one of the best freshmen in intercollegiate squash, took advantage of La Gorce's injured hamstring and won 3-0. Despite the defeat, coach Demer Holleran was pleased with La Gorce's performance. "[La Gorce] basically couldn't run to the front left," Holleran said. "As it was, she put on a good match. It was important that she played so everyone else could play at their true positions." When La Gorce couldn't play, all of the other players had to move up on the ladder and play tougher opponents. "I played under the auspices of having a badly hurt leg," La Gorce said. "I was playing at 85 percent [of my potential]." She, however, feels confident that she will be playing at 100 percent for the next match after winter vacation. "It made all the difference in the world knowing the team won," La Gorce said. "The Amherst win is something that should be focused on because it's such a big win." Indeed, coming into the season, the Lord Jeffs were ranked several places above the No. 9 Quakers. "[Beating Amherst] was one of the things we set as a goal," Holleran said. "[Winning that match] was very important to us because [Amherst] was ranked ahead of us last year." Despite the convincing win against Amherst, the Quakers suffered defeats to Yale on Saturday and Brown on Sunday. Holleran, however, believes that the team drastically improved in its performance against the two teams from the Ivy League scrimmages earlier in the season. "We all tried really hard and we've been working really hard," sophomore Katie Zivkovic said. "Even the Yale coach told us we improved a lot since Ivy scrimmages." Indeed, there were some bright spots despite the losses against the two strong and experienced teams. Freshman Jill Viola won the only match against Brown and played very solidly against Yale. Sophomore Dahlia Aronson also had a consistent weekend. Freshman Elissa Helt came back from a two-game deficit against her Brown opponent to tie the match. She, however, lost a grueling fifth game. The Quakers were without La Gorce for the Yale and Brown matches and Sullivan's illness affected her play against Brown. Even though this weekend left the Quakers winless in the Ivies, they still believe they have a shot at the upcoming league matches. "There's a couple of matches coming up in January and early February that we really want to win," Holleran said. "We're trying to reevaluate where we stand and what kinds of things people want to be working on." Zivkovic believes that with more confidence, the Quakers will defeat older and more experienced teams. "[We will work on] having confidence in ourselves and knowing we can win," Zivkovic said. "We're a really young team and it's intimidating to play [older opponents]." Building upon the team's assets, such as its improving consistency will, perhaps, lead to several victories over competitive Ivy League teams. Holleran feels that rigorous practices over the winter vacation will allow the Quakers to defeat some of the teams that have fielded strong teams thus far in the season. "The season is not even half over," Holleran said. Indeed, with a solid second half, the Quakers may overtake some of their Ivy rivals. After all, if they can play so well without the starting lineup intact, who knows what will happen if everyone is healthy.