SEASON REVIEW: W. Squash improving

They finished this season two ranks higher than they did last season. They won the second division of the prestigious Howe Cup. Their 10-6 record this year was significantly better than last year's 8-8 mark. And –– as if that's not impressive enough –– they accomplished all this with a team comprised mostly of freshmen and sophomores. Nevertheless, the members of the Penn women's squash team are not content with their achievements. They're already talking about next year and their quest to attain a first-division seeding in next year's Howe Cup even though this year's tournament just ended. "I just want us to make the top bracket of the Howe Cup," freshman Elissa Helt said. "We all came together at the Howe Cup and maybe next year we could play all our matches like we did at the Howe Cup." If the 1994-95 edition of the Quakers consistently demonstrate the confidence and focus it did this season, Penn will doubtless prove itself as a legitimate contender for the top bracket. "I thought we did pretty well considering how many new people we had on the team," freshman Jill Viola said. "We did a lot better than anyone expected us to do." Both Viola and Helt agree there were some matches the team should have won but didn't. "Our downer of the season was losing to Dartmouth," Helt said. "When we came to the Howe Cup, we hadn't really won any good matches in a while. We have a good squash team but we had a few problems here and there." Viola believes adjusting to collegiate play is a difficult task for a freshman that would cause a young team to lose some close matches. "In the beginning of the season it took a little while to get used to playing matches against other colleges, and the conditioning was a lot more than we had in high school," Viola said. "We got used to that by the end of the season." Although the season had its low points, no one seems to be pessimistic about the future. "We proved ourselves at the Howe Cup," Helt said. "I'm kind of upset that we didn't make the first division, but there's always next year." With talented –– and now experienced –– young players such as Helt, Viola and the rest of this year's freshmen and sophomores, the first division of the Howe Cup is certainly an attainable goal. After such dramatic improvements since last season, no one knows what accomplishments next year's Quakers will attain.