W. Squash expects to cruise past Haverford

Even without its two top players, the Penn women's squash team expects to dominate Haverford tonight. After Penn swept the Fords last year 9-0 without its top two players, Aimee La Gorce and Wendy Sullivan, the Quakers hope for a repeat performance on the road without Lissa Hunsicker and Elissa Helt. "Usually when we play a team that is obviously weaker, we won't bring our top two players so we can have closer matches," Jenna Bertocchi said. Moving players up a couple of spots makes the team weaker so the matches with Haverford will be closer than if the entire team were playing. The Quakers are hoping to use this match as a confidence builder for their contests against tough Ivy foes Brown and Yale this weekend. "It is good practice to get as many games in as you can before the bigger matches," Bertocchi said. "It's nice to crush someone once in a while." The team will be concentrating on its narrow-court game because Haverford only has narrow courts, as opposed to wide courts. "Playing on narrow courts will help us get used to the courts for this coming weekend," Penn coach Demer Holleran said. "Our intention is to beat them 9-0." This is the first time in Penn history the Quakers will be playing at Haverford. "The girls at Haverford are good-natured about being beaten by us," Holleran said. Penn will use tonight's match as an opportunity to gain confidence in shots the Quakers haven't tried in past match situations. They will also try to improve the general level of their games by using new shots. Hopefully for the Quakers, tonight's matchup will pay dividends this weekend. According to Abi Hopkins, tonight's match against Haverford will be an "easy victory and a confidence booster for the weekend."