W. Squash seeks revenge

Just when the Penn women's squash team was ready to begin the second half of the season, along came Ice Storm '94, which forced the postponement of a January 19 match against Franklin & Marshall. The Quakers, seeking revenge for last season's hard fought 5-4 loss to the Diplomats, will finally play the long-awaited rematch at F&M; today. The Quakers are confident that having the match rescheduled from last week will not hurt their play. In fact, they feel the extra time will benefit Penn. "I don't think it affected us that much. It gave us a little more time to practice, which is always good," Penn freshman Jill Viola said. "I think we have a really good chance to win." "We haven't had a match in a while," Penn freshman Elissa Helt said. "We all want to play. We've done a lot of conditioning and work on the techniques of squash that are needed for everyday play. We're a pretty in-shape team." Although Penn is physically well-prepared, the Quakers will have to deal with another, more challenging, aspect of playing at F&M.; "I heard it's hard to play there because the fans are tough," Viola said. Although many of the freshmen have never had to deal with such crowd antics, they are prepared to play some grueling matches. "We have a good chance to win because we're finally back as a team," Helt said. The fact that Penn will be at full strength could prove to be the deciding factor this afternoon. Since every match counts equally in the scoring, Viola feels the matches played by the lower-ranked players will be crucial in determining how well the team does. "I think we should do well," Viola said. "I think we'll pull out a lot of matches at the bottom of the ladder. It will be close, but I think we'll come through in the end." If Viola's prediction comes to fruition, the long wait caused by the weather may prove to be just the edge the Quakers needed in order to overcome the raucous F&M; crowds.