Tough tasks for M. Squash

The Penn men's squash team isn't even pretending. The Quakers know very well that when they travel to Harvard on Saturday, they are not likely to come home with a victory. The Crimson (5-0) sports an unblemished record and are ranked No. 1 in the nation. In fact, Harvard has yet to drop an individual match all season. "Harvard's in a league of their own," said Penn junior Rajiv Mehta, who recently moved up to the No. 8 position. "Harvard's definitely a superior team in terms of match play and experience." Coming off a 9-0 shutout of Navy on Wednesday, Mehta and the rest of the Quakers (6-1) have been practicing twice a day in preparation for the Harvard match. Despite being huge underdogs, Penn is excited at the opportunity to go up against the country's best. "You have to go in thinking [you are going] to play the best possible match you can play," Quakers senior Ed Vincent said. "Playing in the No. 9 position, I have a good chance to win. It's a no-lose situation. The pressure is on their shoulders, and [we'll] give it all we've got." Because the team is expected to lose 9-0, Penn is focusing on trying to pull out some individual matches. "It's not impossible [to win]," Quakers co-captain Craig Rappaport said. Rappaport just moved into the No. 2 position and will be taking an undefeated individual record into the match. The toughest part of this weekend for the Quakers is that they must travel to Dartmouth after their 11 a.m. meeting with the Crimson at Harvard's Hemenway Gymnasium. The Quakers face the Big Green (6-5) at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Dartmouth Raquet Center. Not only will Penn likely have to bounce back from a loss, but it will also have to adjust to Dartmouth's wide softball courts after playing on Harvard's narrow hardball courts only the day before. "We're going to have to change our mindset," Rappaport said. "The wide court switch is going to be tough. We haven't practiced [on them] all week." The Quakers believe playing on the softball courts is to their advantage. Penn has been working hard on conditioning, specifically to do better on the wider courts, which require the players to do more running and be more physically fit. The Quakers will likely return Sunday night with a 1-1 record for the weekend. But should Penn lose to Harvard, it will be in good company.