M. Squash looks impressive in win over Cornell

A young and inexperienced Penn defeated the Big Red, 6-3, in Quakers coach Jim Masland's debut. The Penn men's squash team opened its season this past Saturday with an impressive victory over Cornell. It marked the first win of new coach Jim Masland's Penn career. The final match score was 6-3, but that wasn't representative of the team's performance. "The score was closer than it indicated," Masland said. "Our team is young, and we need more competition and experience to be able to beat the better teams." The Quakers fill four of their nine starting spots with underclassmen (two sophomores and two freshmen). Penn might be young but it had no trouble avoiding the first obstacle in the new season. The Quakers' first four singles players won easily, only dropping one game out of 13. Shams Mistry, Penn's No. 1 player, won three games in row and only lost 23 points in the entire match. Although just a sophomore, Mistry may already be one of the best players in the region. "If he works hard enough and puts enough time into his game, he could be top five in the region," Masland said. That dominance was seen throughout the top four, as freshman Chuck Braff won three games to one. Even though he had little trouble winning the match, Braff was not completely satisfied. "I would have liked to play better, but I still won," Braff said. "The guy I was playing from Cornell didn't appear to be into the match mentally. He didn't seem up for the match." Although that was Braff's first collegiate match, he wasn't nervous. "I liked the team concept," he said. "I was excited, not anxious". The top of the lineup was quite impressive, but the results from the bottom of the lineup were disappointing. Masland identified the problem as a lack of competition and focus. "We need to have more intense practices," he said. "In the match, we lost our focus. Our ability to compete has to get better in order to beat upcoming opponents Yale and Brown. We need to concentrate on having good squash points." Penn's No. 5 player, Leif Berquist, No. 7 Jason Karp and No. 9 Rob Price were all losers on Saturday. Masland cited the wide courts as being a contributor in the losses. "We have a lot of narrow courts and only a few wide courts," he said. "In squash, this can make a big difference, and our players weren't used to it. We ended up losing No. 7 and No. 9 partly because of this problem. The courts are no excuse, but they did play a factor." Karp, a junior who finally cracked the starting lineup this year, also blamed the courts as being part of the problem. "I didn't practice enough on the wide courts, and I had trouble getting comfortable," he said. Despite the few setbacks, the Quakers were just glad to begin the Jim Masland era with a victory.