W. Squash trashes Cornell behind DiMauro's play at No. 1

This past Saturday at the Ringe Squash Courts, the Penn women's squash team opened their Ivy League season by demolishing Cornell, 9-0. But for senior co-captain Lindsay DiMauro it was more than just the start of another Ivy season. With something to prove to herself and the team after her demotion to No. 2 following two straight years at No. 1, DiMauro set out to prove that she is still the same player that won the national title in 1995. After two years at No. 2 in the shadow of DiMauro, junior Katie Patrick impressed Penn coach Demer Holleran with her play enough to leapfrog over DiMauro and into the No. 1 slot. However, with Patrick absent from the Quakers (2-0, 1-0 Ivy League), DiMauro was thrust back into the spotlight facing the prized freshman recruit of Cornell (0-1, 0-1), former Spanish junior champion and No. 1 player Olga Puidgmont-Sola. Expecting a very close and competitive match, DiMauro came out firing, quickly winning the first game 9-2 against a noticeably nervous Puidgmont-Sola "It was Olga's first match in college, and I think that as we play more matches she will get more comfortable in this type of environment," Cornell's No. 4 Megan Schwartz said. "She was going up against [DiMauro] which is no easy task." Puidgmont-Sola never seemed to overcome the shock of going up against one of the nation's top squash players, falling 9-3 in the second game and then 9-5 in the third and final game after putting up a late rally. "That is about the smartest I've played all year," DiMauro said after the match. "I haven't been making the right decisions lately after not playing much this summer. It was good to go out there and be patient. I didn't make many errors, and I didn't go for the short shot too early. They were fast courts today, and I just waited for my opportunities." Holleran agreed with DiMauro's assessment of her performance saying, "I'm really pleased that Jessica won, and it was also good to see her working the points. When she doesn't play well is when she goes for the winner too quickly. Today she hit three to four forcing shots and then went for the winner. It was great to see the process of the points." DiMauro's dominant performance was symbolic of the effort put forth by the rest of the Quakers, who barely broke a sweat in their quick dismantling of the Big Red. The Quakers swept all but two matches, and were not pushed to a fifth game in any of the nine matches. The inexperience of the Big Red was exposed against the deeper and more mature Penn team. With its varsity squash program only three years old, Cornell has many players on its roster who just began playing squash a few years ago. This was no match for the Quakers, who historically boast one of the top teams in the nation. "We need to play more competitive matches. When you're match fit, you have the stamina to stay in the points. It also builds up your mental toughness," Cornell coach Orla Doherty said. "The Penn players wanted to rally, rally, rally and let my players make the mistakes while my players wanted to end the points quickly." This fact was never more evident than in the No. 7 match, where freshman Quaker Blair Morris was able to quickly regroup and win 3-1 after Cornell's Melinda Lee evened the match at one game a piece.