Mehta leads M. Squash past Yale and Brown in clutch

The score was tied 3-3. The result rested solely on one match. If Penn sophomore Rajiv Mehta beat his Brown adversary, he would be the hero. If he lost, he would be the goat. Mehta coolly dispatched his opponent, giving the Quakers a 5-4 victory. That kind of clutch play enabled the Penn men's squash team to survive its crucial Ivy weekend with two wins. The squad beat Yale 6-3 Saturday and then edged Brown Sunday. Against the Elis, whom Penn (3-0, 3-0 Ivy League) had not beaten since 1987, the top five of Steve Scharff, Andrew Braff, Craig Rappaport, Sanjay Nayar, Ian Childs and No. 9 Rajiv Mehta won their matches. Ed Vincent, Leif Bergquist, and Nilay Mehta, No. 6 through No. 8, all lost. The strong play of the top three continued against the Bears, with each winning 3-0. Nayar, Childs, Bergquist, and Nilay Mehta lost, leaving the winning match to Rajiv Mehta. "The focus was pretty good, even though the squash probably wasn't the best for all of them," Penn coach Ned Edwards said. "It truly was a team effort, especially the Brown match, which was a great win. Even the guys who lost were elated with the outcome." Edwards felt the lack of productivity from the middle-ranked players was merely due to inexperience. He expects the results to improve as soon as the players get more matches under their belt. "We put in a lot of work for this weekend, and it really paid off," said Scharff, who saw the team go 3-0 for the first time in his four years at Penn. "This team showed a lot of character at Brown in relying on one of our players and coming out with a win instead of a loss. Now our goal is to go undefeated." The Quakers' next match comes in mid-January at Franklin and Marshall, followed by a tournament at West Point where they will be competing against some weaker teams. The lesser competition should boost their record and confidence in time for a tough stretch where they play rivals Trinity, Williams and Amherst. To make matters worse, all three contests are on the road. The team will level off its training for finals and return a week early from winter break to work on conditioning. The Quakers will also try to increase their stamina by practicing on the wider courts. For now, the squad is very happy with its success.