Squash teams disappoint over long weekend

Men squashed by Crimson, slip past Big Green The Penn men's squash team can always look on the bright side -- it did get to travel with the women's team during its trip this weekend. Penn split its Saturday-Sunday affair with Ivy foes Harvard and Dartmouth. The Quakers got squashed by the perennial-powerhouse Crimson, 9-0, and barely survived the Big Green, 5-4. "It was a tough loss," Penn senior co-captain Billy Hamilton said of the Harvard match. "They had a really strong lineup from top to bottom. We were a little overmatched in that one." The Quakers (5-4, 3-2 Ivy League) were hurt by the absence of No. 3 junior Vayu Garware who was too ill to compete. Most of the Penn players were forced to move up a spot in the rotation. Regardless, a better performance against Harvard was expected. "We thought that a lot of the matches would be closer than they were," Hamilton said. "We thought that we would be in a lot more matches. Some of the guys did play well. Andrew [Braff] played very well." It would have been unrealistic for Penn to expect a victory against the Crimson. But to the Quakers' credit, they did slip by Dartmouth. However, according to Penn, that score never should have been that close. No. 2 Andrew Braff and No. 6 freshman Ian Childs started the Quakers off with a bang as they whacked their Big Green opponents, 3-1 and 3-0, respectively, to put Penn up 2-0. The Red and Blue figured to come out of the first four matches with a lead, as No. 4 freshman Juan Dominguez and No. 8 freshman Leif Burquist were competing well in their five-game matches. But, within seconds of each other, both highly-touted youngsters collapsed and fell. "They were playing on courts right next to each other and within one minute, they both lost and it was a big shock to us," Hamilton said. No. 1 co-captain Steve Scharff came up big with a dominating victory to put the Quakers back on track. No. 5 sophomore Craig Rappaport, probably not the most intimidating Penn player at 5-foot-6, but most definitely the one with the biggest heart, battled back from a 2-1 deficit to give Penn a 4-2 lead. However, Dartmouth would not yield as easily on the squash court as it did on the gridiron during the fall. The Big Green rolled to another victory and with No. 3 freshman Sumeet Bhullar down 2-0, Penn was on the verge of being dealt a weekend sweep. But the only Quaker senior, No. 9 Billy Hamilton, came up with a big 3-0 blowout to save Penn. "I thought I played one of my best matches this year or in my Penn career," Hamilton said. " A lot of people were watching my match with Bhullar almost done." Any Vegas oddsmaker would have made Penn a severe underdog against Harvard and a moderate favorite against Dartmouth. So, those riding the favorites might be seeing a serious windfall, but not before sweating it out Sunday. "We were happy to get out of [Dartmouth] alive," Hamilton said. "We expected to look a little better in the close matches, but their courts are a little different so some of the guys had a little bit of trouble adjusting."