One can just imagine it now -- tears pouring down from all the seniors' faces as their last matches as Penn men's squash players have been played. Fortunately for the Quakers, there were many dry faces. Penn completed its 1993-94 squash campaign this past weekend with three final matches in the ISA championships at Yale. However, Penn hopes to return many familiar faces next year as the Quakers will only lose one key senior -- No. 7 Billy Hamilton. Penn came into the weekend looking to avenge earlier losses to Trinity and Franklin & Marshall. The Quakers got a chance at revenge in their match against Trinity, but they came up just short, 5-4. "We almost won," Penn sophomore Andrew Braff said. "We played fairly well, so we are not really disappointed. You can't be disappointed as long as the effort is there. The result really wasn't that bad, we were the underdog." Penn coach Ned Edwards felt his team should have come up on top and was a little disheartened by the result. "The guys played very well, but it was really a disappointment," Edwards said. "There were a couple of places where we could have made that one match up that we lost by." Penn's loss included a crushing victory by No. 5 freshman Sumeet Bhullar, and close wins by No. 3 sophomore Craig Rappaport and No. 4 freshman Juan Dominguez. The loss to the Bantams was preceded by a loss to Yale, 8-1. Yet, after losing two in a row, Penn came up with a clutch victory over Williams, 5-4. The 1-2 weekend record may be a little deceiving considering the absence of No. 3 junior Vayu Garware. Although he had the preceding two weeks relatively light, Garware felt the need to stay in the City of Brotherly Love over the weekend and catch up on his work. "He had gotten inundated academically," Edwards said. "He just wanted to make sure that he was on top of things. I just wish that he had arranged things so that he hadn't been in this position. Not having a full lineup really hurt us against Trinity. It makes me feel that if we would have had a full squad, we would have a good chance at winning some more matches." Junior Steve Scharff, who had played No. 1 all year, was dropped to No. 2 after losing a challenge match to Braff. Unfortunately for the Quakers, Braff was beaten in all three matches. "Playing at No.1 is a little tougher," Braff said. "I had never played at this level before and I didn't start to get into it until the very end." Meanwhile, Scharff, who is a returning second team all-American this year, continued to experience difficulties early in the weekend, but regrouped in the Williams' match to come up with a strong 3-1 victory. "Steve had a difficult season, but in the last match of the year, he realized that he really did need to click," Edwards said. "He played with a lot of heart." Although the season has come to an end, there are no somber faces around Ringe Courts. "They were all ready and did compete really well," Edwards said. "I'm really proud of them. They were good sports and that is not a small thing. I'm happy the way things went."
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