M. Squash hopes to avenge earlier losses

The Penn men's squash team has endured some tough losses this season. It was defeated by Trinity, Amherst and Franklin and Marshall in three tight matches that could have gone either way. All is forgotten this weekend, however, as the Quakers (9-5) plan their revenge. The team travels to Princeton today to play in the ISA team championships, intercollegiate squash's postseason tournament. Since the Quakers finished in the top eight in the country at No. 6, they qualify for the Division A playoffs. They will play four matches over the weekend, one today, two tomorrow and one Sunday. The winner will be considered the national champion. Although there will be 40 schools competing overall, the field for Division A includes Harvard, Western Ontario, Princeton, and Amherst in the top four spots, followed by Trinity, Penn, Williams and Franklin and Marshall. Harvard has won each of the last two years. Although the Quakers are not told of their opponents ahead of time, they are hoping to get another crack at Trinity, Amherst or F&M;, teams they feel are beatable. "This is what we've been working for all year, and it's the most important time of the season," co-captain Craig Rappaport said. "This is our time for revenge." No team has home court advantage or the unenviable position of having travelled hundreds of miles the day of a match. This time, there will be no excuses. "We had a slightly disappointing season, finishing 9-5 instead of 10-2, like we hoped we would," Penn coach Ned Edwards said. "We had some very tough losses, but they were all on the road. Being on a neutral court should make a difference this time around." Edwards is again conceding the top spots in this weekend's tournament, predicting that Harvard will win, followed by Princeton and Western Ontario. Only instead of Amherst coming in next, Edwards feels his team can claim the fourth spot. "Harvard is one of the best collegiate teams ever assembled," Edwards said. "There is little doubt that they will repeat, but our goal is to finish fourth." This will be the final event of the season for most of the players. Although the top three of Steve Scharff, Andrew Braff and Craig Rappaport will travel to Williams next weekend to compete in the ISA Individuals at Dartmouth, no one is looking past this weekend as an opportunity to put Penn in the upper echelon of collegiate squash. If nothing else, the Quakers can get a chance to vindicate some of the heartbreaking losses they suffered over the course of a tense season.