M. Squash loses to Harvard, defeats Big Green

As expected, it was a weekend of highs and lows for the Penn men's squash team. With two Ivy League foes invading Penn's Ringe Courts, the Quakers looked like two different teams in two days. The two-time defending national champion Harvard Crimson handed Penn a 9-0 blowout loss Saturday, but in a complete reversal of fortune, Penn beat Dartmouth 9-0 Sunday. The Quakers gave just as dominant a performance against as they witnessed by Harvard the day before. There wasn't much suspense against the Crimson (8-0, 4-0 Ivy League). The Quakers (9-4, 4-1) had all but conceded the match in the week leading up to the match, and they seemed to have good reason. Six out of the nine matches were shutout losses, including the top five spots. The only drama of the whole afternoon was provided by No. 8 Ed Vincent, whose match against Harvard's Joe Kaplan went the distance. Vincent lost 15-12 in a tightly contested fifth game. Harvard's superiority was illustrated in an even greater fashion by the fact it was facing Penn without its No. 2 player, Daniel Ezra. The Quakers got a minor break by Harvard's adjustment of its lineup, but they didn't even come close to capitalizing. "I think this year's version of Harvard is one of the strongest collegiate squash teams ever assembled," Penn head coach Ned Edwards said. "Their talent base is extraordinary." So were the Quakers tanking the match and saving themselves for yesterday's match against Dartmouth? "Absolutely not," Penn assistant Titus Cranch said. "Everyone wants to beat Harvard. Even if you lose 8-1, you can say you were the one." As it turns out, the Quakers didn't need much energy to dust off the Big Green (3-11, 1-4) yesterday. In the 9-0 triumph, there were five shutouts and two matches decided by a 3-1 score. Senior Steve Scharff, junior Craig Rappaport, junior Carl Sibbern, senior Chris Bradeen and freshman Nilay Mehta all won 3-0. Andrew Braff and Ian Childs' matches both went five games. But the difference between this day and some of the others Penn has endured this season was the Quakers were able to pull out the victories instead of folding under pressure. "We've had some hard knocks this season, and I was expecting our guys to come out focused and to take this team very seriously," Edwards said. "We stack up well against Dartmouth, but we weren't going to take any chances." The Quakers expect to build on their confidence when they travel to Princeton Wednesday to take on the Tigers, who are ranked No. 2 in the country behind Harvard.