Squash teams face challenges

M. Squash travels to the Crimson You've gotta be in it to win it. So it goes for the Penn men's squash team this weekend. Although the Quakers' chances against perennial-national-powerhouse Harvard aren't strong, Penn will show up, and after that, anything is possible. The Quakers (5-4, 2-1 Ivy League) are coming off an impressive 6-3 victory at Navy Wednesday. Undeterred by its 5-4 loss to the Midshipmen last year, Penn came out firing. The top three Quakers were defeated, but the rest of the squad picked up the slack. "We did a good job down there because it's not easy to play in Annapolis," Penn coach Ned Edwards said. "I really respect the Navy work ethic. These guys are always tough to beat, they don't give it to you." Freshman standout Summeet Bhullar, who has played tremendously, was one of the Quaker casualties. Bhullar moved up one spot to No. 3 for the Navy match, but after this most recent defeat, he will return to his regular position at No. 4 for the weekend. "Bhullar has been doing really well," Edwards said. "He didn't play a confident, aggressive match. He gave the guy some room and he took it." No.1 junior Steve Scharff, a second team all-American last year, has lost six out of his last eight matches. Although he has been facing some of the nation's best, Scharff needs to regroup from Wednesday's loss and get back on a winning path. "I think his losses can be attributed to the level of his competition," Penn sophomore Craig Rappaport said. "He'd still school us all." "I feel as though Steve has played the best players around the country, but they're not better squash players than Scharff," Edwards said. "So it's disappointing that he's not starting to knock some of these guys off." With only three matches remaining before the playoffs, the Quakers need to be focused. One thing is for sure, tomorrow's match at Harvard won't be easy. Sunday, Penn travels straight to New Hampshire to battle Dartmouth. Although the Quakers handily defeated the Big Green 6-3 last year, Penn is not taking them lightly. "It's a chance for us to prove ourselves with a big win," Rappaport said. "Realistically, Harvard is a definite favorite, but maybe we can pull off a couple of wins. I'm shooting to play really well. We should beat Dartmouth, but we're definitely going to take them seriously." Ranked fifth, sixth and seventh, respectively, freshman Juan Dominguez, Rappaport and freshman Ian Childs have been dominating in match play. Dominguez and Rappaport own the Quakers' best records. "The three of them are pretty good," Edwards said. "I would potentially favor those guys this weekend. Now we have to find two other guys who aren't favored to pull off wins and we have a shot at Harvard." "It's tough to say that we're going to go 1-2 [including next Wednesday's match vs. No. 2 Princeton] over our next three," Rappaport said. "On the books, we should win one and lose two. But I have hope. The last couple matches that we have won have been team wins. Bottom line -- we came through. Some guys lost, but the others came through." Do you believe in miracles? Well, the Quakers do and might just need one to come away with a sweep over the weekend.