M. Squash only comes close

Coming close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, not squash. The Penn men's squash team, after a very impressive 5-4 win against Williams Saturday, came up just short against Trinity Sunday. The Quakers (4-4) were hurt by the absence of freshman Ian Childsover, who was dominating against Franklin & Marshall last week. Now, the Quakers must regroup for their upcoming strenuous schedule. "We won as a team," freshman Sumeet Bhullar said after Saturday's win over the Ephs. "We all pulled together. It was a great match because everybody had fights." The freshmen continued their dominance of match play. Bhullar, Juan Dominguez and Leif Berquist contributed three of the five Quaker victories. "I lost the first game terribly, 15-5," Bhullar said. "Then [coach Ned Edwards] and the other coach came to me and told me to go wild on the court and I did just that." Top-seeded junior Steve Scharff turned his game up a notch after having lost three of his last four matches and won 3-2. No. 5 Craig Rappaport played with the same heart that has been carrying him all year and cruised to a tremendous weekend. "I felt really strong this weekend," Rappaport said. "We all bounced back on Saturday. Williams was a tremendous win." But, the tide turned Sunday. The day started out on a good note as the Quakers were tied 2-2 after the first four matches. The freshmen again dominated as Bhullar and Dominguez won their matches handily. "We [the two freshman] don't hurt the team at all," Bhullar said. "We're both softball players, so in the beginning it was hard to adjust to hardball, but now we're on a roll." But, No. 3 sophomore Andrew Braff and No. 9 Berquist got crushed 3-0. "Berquist, who played so tough against Williams, wasn't as tough against Trinity," Edwards said. Yet, after Rappaport demolished his opponent 3-0, the Quakers were still alive. Scharff was leading 2-1 in his match and No. 7 sophomore Sanjay Nayar was still battling. Unfortunately for Penn, Nayar could not come through. Scharff let the next two games slide and Penn fell 6-3. Although the team winner may have already been decided beforehand, Scharff's match certainly didn't lack excitement. "Scharff's case was unfortunate because he played well enough to win," Edwards said. "There were some questionable calls. These things are left to interpretation and they shouldn't be. It's incumbent on each player to enforce the rules." The Quakers have a chance today to prove they can pull off some big matches when they travel to Annapolis to face Navy at 4 p.m.