W. Squash opens new Ringe Courts with two shutouts

The Quakers shut out Yale and Brown this weekend, surrendering just two of 54 total games. The Penn women's squash team proved this weekend that it shows no mercy. In matches against Yale (0-1, 0-1) on Saturday and Brown (0-1, 0-1) on Sunday, the Quakers won a total of 54 games of squash. They lost two. In their first matches on the newly renovated Ringe Squash Courts, Penn (4-0, 3-0 Ivy League) looked right at home, bulldozing Yale 9-0 and blanking Brown 9-0. With this weekend's performance, the Quakers have shut out three of their four opponents. The only individual loss this season was a number nine seed in the season opener against Cornell. For the four Penn freshmen -- Helen Bamber, Rina Borromeo, Megan Fuller, and Lauren Patrizio -- the easy matches turned out to be the perfect way to adjust to playing in front of a raucous home crowd. For Fuller, overcoming her "Sunday jinx" was the toughest part. "I'm Mormon so I'm not supposed to play on Sundays," Fuller said. "I've never won a game on Sunday. I was pretty confident I'd beat her, but once you doubt yourself that's the end." Borromeo was familiar with the strategy of her Brown opponent, freshman Katherine Hughes, who is her friend and prep school rival. "Before the game we were joking around and gossiping," said Borromeo. "When you get on the court it's a different story. She represents Brown and I represent Penn. That's it." Patrizio enjoyed performing for the crowd. She wasted no time finishing off both her opponents 3-0. "A lot of my friends came and cheered," Patrizio said. "I got a little nervous but it was okay. I was just hitting a lot of drops and both of my opponents had a lot of trouble with my serve." Bamber has been concentrating on making some adjustments in her style of play. This weekend provided her with a good opportunity to test what she has learned. "She wants me to play a more aggressive attack style of squash," Bamber said of Penn coach Demer Holleran. "I was nervous because I'm not really used to it yet." "Everything" was Bamber's description of what she did particularly well this weekend. Holleran agreed. "Helen played very well and did a good job employing the strategies we've been working on," Holleran said. "It doesn't come very naturally to her, so it was good to see her focus on those things." Junior captain Lindsay Moss performed especially strongly in her two performances this weekend. In her match against Brown's Danielle Horwich, Moss gave up only one point as she overpowered Horwich with drives and kept her off-balance with a drop shot. "It gave me a good chance to work on my return of serve which I was doing pretty well," Moss said. "I was particularly pleased with the play of Lindsay," Holleran said. "She really dominated her opponents and was very sharp and quick to the ball." The only games Penn lost were in tough matches between sophomore Katie Patrick and Yale junior Carla Shen. Patrick came out looking flat and was slow getting to the ball. After battling to a tie at two games apiece, energy overcame frustration for Patrick as she finished strongly, shutting Shen down 9-1 in the final game. "In a way it's good that this happened in a match where she could get away with it, so it won't happen in a tougher match where she can't," Holleran said. The matches were as lopsided as the Quakers had expected, but the Quakers still valued the victories. "Even though these weren't our toughest matches, each match counts the same," Moss said.