W. Squash spends break north of the border

Three Quakers also competed at the prestigious Constable Invite at Princeton. For the Penn women's squash team, the semester break provided some great moments and team unity to help them in their fight to become Ivy League champions. The break started with the solid play of a trio of sophomores Jessica DiMauro and Dana Lipson and freshman Katie Patrick at the Constable Invitational, held at Princeton. Following the tournament, the whole team travelled to Toronto for a week of conditioning and scrimmaging. Similar to last year, the Constable Invitation was a very successful tournament for the Quakers. DiMauro continued her dominant intercollegiate play as she repeated as champion in the field of the top-20 intercollegiate players. After only losing one game in the whole tournament, to Amherst's No. 1 seed Harriet Els in the semifinal, DiMauro cruised to the championship, defeating Princeton's No. 1 seed Katherine Johnson in the finals 9-1, 9-3, 9-1. "I had a pretty good game plan from the beginning," DiMauro said. "The competition was good. I was worried about going into the tournament. I had a really good weekend." En route to her fifth-place finish, Patrick played superbly in defeating Brown No. 1 seed Devon Kennedy, but eventually lost to Harvard's top player, Ivy Pochoda. "I have never seen Katie run so hard in her match [as] against the girl from Brown," Penn head coach Demer Holleran said. "It was really good to see Katie work hard and have results." After drawing the eventual tournament runner-up, Lipson lost her first match, won her second, and was eliminated from the tournament in her third match. Upon arriving in Princeton to cheer on their teammate DiMauro in the championship, the Quakers left to train for a week in Toronto, while taking a few sight-seeing stops, including Niagara Falls. The week featured a decisive 7-2 victory against Toronto's McMaster University and a defeat against the Pine Valley Squash Club's A team, which featured DiMauro's 16-year old sister playing the No. 1 seed. Penn spent most of the winter vacation playing each other and working on drills specific to each player's weaknesses. Holleran also focussed on improving their conditioning and match skills. "I was hoping they would gain better consistency, spend time on the court, hit a lot of balls, get their fitness back, and make sure they were confident going into their early matches this semester," Holleran said. "I think we achieved those things, and I think they had some fun. It was good team bonding. They are ready to work hard for the next six weeks." DiMauro felt that the team enjoyed the week experience together. At yesterday's practice, one could sense the team getting along a lot better than before the trip. "It was good for the team," captain Elissa Helt said. "You spend so much time together on the squash court. It is nice to hang out off the squash court also." With their tough matches coming in the beginning of next month against Ivy League opponents Dartmouth, Princeton, and Harvard, the match experience and team togetherness gained during the break is definitely a positive factor for this relatively young team.

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