M. Squash overwhelmed at home by Yale

A lot has been made the past few months about the building of the Ringe Squash Courts -- the new 10-court international-style facility that is home to the Penn squash teams. This weekend, the men had the chance to christen their new stomping grounds, playing two matches against Ivy League foes Yale and Brown. On Saturday, Penn (2-2, 2-1 Ivy) faced off against the Elis and were dominated, falling 7-2. Yale, a national top-five team, exhibited its superiority by blitzing the Quakers with a deeper and more experienced lineup. "Yale is just a better team," senior Jason Karp said. "We were a bit intimidated by them and lacked some confidence." Penn's No.1 and No.2 players, Chuck Braff and Juan Dominguez, started off strong. After looking somewhat frustrated in the first set, Braff defeated Yale senior Doug Lam, three sets to one. Dominguez made easy work of Robert Gilpin, winning in straight sets and overmatching Gilpin with a combination of pure power and finesse touch shots. The rest of the wheels fell off the bus for the Quakers, however, as the remainder of the lineup struggled. Six Quakers suffered 3-0 defeats and junior transfer Andrew Hopkins lost a hard-fought match, 3-2, to Charles Smith. Embarrassed in its home opener, Penn looked at yesterday's match versus Brown as a chance to establish themselves as respectable competitors in the Ivy League. They responded in grand fashion, bouncing back from the loss to Yale to whip the Bears 9-0. The entire lineup turned in solid performances, paced again by Braff and Dominguez. Braff beat Brown's No. 1 player, Alex Hurwitz, 3-1, and Dominguez followed by jumping on Rishaal Sawhney, 3-0. The other Quakers veterans stabilized the solid effort with decisive victories of their own. Filla disposed of Jason Manomaivat in straight sets, and Nilay Mehta also swept passed Thomas Rodgers. In the closest match, Karp defeated James Rich, 3-2. After losing the first two matches and finding himself on the ropes, he rebounded to win the final three sets. "We came out today believing that we were the better team," Karp said. "We were able to attack the ball and be more aggressive." Braff's victories at No. 1 were the most meaningful aspect of the weekend for the Quakers. Playing in the No.1 position for the Yale and Brown matches, the sophomore was the anchor for a team which played inconsistently in the two matches. "Chuck is a great leader and I'm glad he's playing at No. 1 where he belongs," Dominguez said. "He needs to take that position and play against other teams' best players for the remainder of the season." Braff recognizes the responsibility that has been placed upon him and notes the importance of a successful No.1 player. "The players that I will be playing are some of the best players in the country," said Braff. "They are opponents who have participated in international play and I just need to step my play up."