Penn gets squashed

With the feeling of the season coming to a close, the Penn women's squash team failed once again to break the grip of the Tigers. The Quakers (6-2, 3-2 Ivy League) lost their final Ivy League match of the season, 7-2, to the second-ranked team in the nation, Princeton (8-1, 5-1). Penn's victories came from its top two seeds, sophomore Jessica DiMauro and freshman Katie Patrick. Fighting through her fever, DiMauro defeated Princeton senior Katherine Johnson, 3-1. Patrick, fighting off an injured knee, had little problem in her match, as she blanked Princeton sophomore Elise O'Connell, 3-0. For the rest of the team, things did not go as well. Although the Quakers had over a week to prepare for the match, sophomore Lindsay Moss felt the lack of focus during warm-ups hurt the the Quakers during match time. "Throughout the team, most of us tried our best," Penn freshman Paige Kollock said. "We were a little bit outmatched. It has been a long season. People are starting to get distracted, because we have not had a break from squash in a while." The next test for the nationally third-ranked Quakers comes this weekend as the team travels to Yale for the Howe Cup Invitational, the national championship tournament. The Quakers are hoping to improve, as last year's team came into the tournament with similar stature to only finish fifth. "We work all season for this," Moss said. "It is one weekend to get a ranking. The Howe Cup is a separate ranking from the rest of the season." The 27-school invitational is split into four levels. In the top level, the Quakers will first play a round-robin format Friday and Saturday in a pool consisting of Trinity, Brown and Princeton. The top team from that pool plays the top team from the other pool for first place, the second teams play for third place, etc. Penn coach Demer Holleran is pleased with the draw. Although they lost to Princeton on Tuesday, the Quakers easily defeated Brown 9-0 in December and feel confident in their match against Trinity. Holleran expects her team to meet Yale Sunday in the playoff for third. Having already defeated the Elis this year, the Quakers know they have the upper hand in the match. However, Yale's lineup has changed, giving them a possible advantage. "My hope is that the team will at least finish third, which means probably beating Yale," Holleran said. "It will be difficult. They have an additional person since the last time we played them. There is a whole lot of energy surrounding the Howe Cup. I think they will feel the energy and hopefully rise to the occasion." With a third-place finish in the regular season and Ivy League polls, the Quakers showed that last year's success was not a fluke. However, their attempt to distinguish themselves will be evident in this weekend's tournament performance.

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