DiMauro, W. Squash cruise past Amherst

One would expect a matchup between the No. 1 and No. 2 collegiate women's squash players in the nation to be a gritty struggle. However, the featured match between Penn freshman Jessica DiMauro, the No. 1 ranked player, and No. 2 Harriet Ells of Amherst hardly lived up to the billing, as the Quakers' Canadian phenom easily handled her rival. It was against Ells that DiMauro first claimed her No. 1 ranking, when she beat the Amherst star in the finals of a tournament featuring collegiate women's squash's top 16 players. This time, DiMauro did not drop a single game to Ells, leading Penn to a convincing 9-0 blowout of the Lord Jeffs. In fact, she has yet to lose a game all season. "When I first started the season, I was hoping not to lose a match," DiMauro said. "Now I hope that I can keep this up and not drop a game." Although DiMauro's won her match decisively, she said it was her toughest match thus far because of her unfamiliarity with the narrow courts at Princeton, the neutral site where the match was played. It was her first time ever playing a match on a narrow court. The rest of the team, also new to the narrow courts, which Amherst practices on regularly, all won their matches decisively as well. "Amherst tends to be very competitive so it was nice to beat them so convincingly," Penn coach Demer Holleran said. Today the Quakers face off against Johns Hopkins at the Ringe Courts at 5:30 p.m., in what should be Penn's easiest match of the season. "We should win 9-0," said Holleran Holleran is not even bothering to rest her team for the meet, instead treating the Hopkins meet almost like a practice. She plans to have her team practice, play the matches against the Blue Jays and then resume the normal practice schedule immediately. Although enthusiastic about the win over Amherst and today's imminent win over Johns Hopkins, Holleran admits it is crunch time for her players because the toughest matches against Harvard and Dartmouth are yet to come. Nonetheless, Holleran is confident in her team. "All in all, we're a strong team," she said. "We're confident. Beating Amherst was a boost, once again proving that we're one of the toughest teams out there."