Three W. Squash players to enter prestigious tourney

DiMauro, Patrick and Lipson will head to Princeton on January 3. The Penn women's squash team will be enjoying their training in Toronto this winter break, embarking on the journey with an undefeated record of 3-0, including 2-0 in the Ivy League. Coming off of a triumphant weekend against Ivy opponents Yale and Brown, the Quakers will only need to make minor adjustments during their vacation period. For the top three players, it will also be a competitive break. Only 10 players will be making the voyage to Canada. Unlike many other teams, the majority of those players are freshmen who constitute half of the traveling team. It is this same group of five freshmen that proved to be key factors against the Elis and the Bears this past weekend. Saturday, the team slipped by Yale 5-4. No. 1 seed sophomore Jessica DiMauro and No. 2 seed freshman Katie Patrick set the tone of the match with their straight game wins. However, it was the group of Patricia Lin, Paige Kollock, and Lauren Mann, playing in the No. 7, No. 8, and No. 9 seeds that came through to win the match for the Quakers. "The deciding factor was the lower [seeded] numbers of the team just being tougher, wanting it more than their opponent," Holleran said. "They were working harder for the points, not giving up, not making mistakes, and just doing the simple things right. They wanted to win for the team, which is great." Again on Sunday the two Canadians, DiMauro and Patrick, left the courts in a hurry with their straight game wins. This time, the team followed suit as Penn blanked Brown 9-0. The four freshmen again earned victories in bettering last year's 5-4 victory against the Bears. "The big difference in our team is that we have freshmen in the back of the lineup where we had seniors last year," Holleran said. "A big factor this past weekend was how tough those freshmen were going to be. Whether they would compete with confidence and desire. It was very exciting to see them prove to themselves that they wanted it." Before the team travels up to Toronto, they are going to make a brief stop at Princeton, to cheer for Penn's top three players, DiMauro, Patrick, and Dana Lipson, as they compete in the Constable Invitational, January 3-5. The Constable Invitational annually features the 20 best players in the nation for an informal national championship. DiMauro will try to repeat as champion of the event. Lipson also competed in the event last year, winning only one out of her three matches. In Toronto, the team will scrimmage against the Canadian schools of Western Ontario, Queens, and University of Toronto. The week long trip will give the team a lot of extra training, including a chance to build camaraderie within the team. "I think our team is close already, but Toronto will bring us even closer," Kollock said. "We should get some good practice time in with different types of players." As a team without a junior and only two seniors, it seems to fit the perfect image of a rebuilding year. "Last year they had a very successful season," Kollock said. "This year they were a bit apprehensive, because the team is mostly freshmen and sophomores. It is a very young team, and usually when you have a very young team it is a rebuilding season." However, this team which also contains seven freshmen and four sophomores has no desire to step back from the pressure. Led by DiMauro, the reigning collegiate national champion, and Patrick, the "top freshman entering collegiate competition," this team is concentrating on defeating Harvard, Dartmouth, and Princeton to take the Ancient Eight title and on improving their third-place finish at the WISRA Championships. Much will depend on the strength of the freshmen.

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