M. Squash starts busy stretch with undefeated foe

The 1998-99 school year and the collegiate squash season may both be half over, but for the Penn men's squash team, the best is yet to come. The Quakers are coming off a fall semester in which they played a grand total of four official matches. The second half of the season will not be nearly as quiet, as Penn takes on four teams in the next two weeks. The Quakers (2-2 overall, 2-1 Ivy League) play their first match of the new year tonight when they trek to Lancaster, Pa., to compete against the Diplomats of Franklin & Marshall. While Lancaster may be known for its numerous Amish residents, it is also home to some of the best collegiate squash players in the country. The Diplomats(6-0) are led by twins and co-captains Vinay and Vineet Asthana from India, who were both named All-Americans last year. "I think this is a good match for us to start off with," Quakers coach Jim Masland said. "It's a good opportunity. It should be a good challenge and a great match for us to play." One issue that the Red and Blue will have to deal with when they meet the Diplomats is the long break in training that they took for winter vacation. Unlike many other Penn varsity sports, the men's squash team chose not to practice over the winter break. "A lot of the team took some time away from the sport because the first semester was pretty taxing just from all angles, from the actual sport to training," Penn junior captain Andrew Hopkins said. "I think hopefully we will benefit from that time away. The decision to take time off from practice, however, may have some negative consequences for the Quakers. Even Masland concedes that although the team is "playing well, very cleanly, very crisply? they could be in a little better shape." While the Quakers were relaxing and recuperating from their first semester, the Diplomats remained hard at work. In fact, while this will be Penn's inaugural match of the year, F&M; has already hosted an invitational and competed in a match against Denison. The match against the Diplomats should be exactly what Penn needs to get back its competitive edge before facing even tougher teams such as Princeton and Harvard, which loom on the horizon. "This match should be a great stepping-stone for the rest of the season, which gets progressively harder and harder for us with more competitive teams," Hopkins said. Furthermore, the team sees the match as a chance to chart how far it needs to progress to realize its goal of finishing among the nation's top eight squash teams. "I don't think this match will necessarily make us or break us," sophomore Jamie White said. "What it will do is give us an idea of how hard we need to work to reach our goal of a finish in the top eight." Perhaps freshman Matt Juraska summed it up best. "We have the majority of our matches coming up and if we can do well in those matches, then we know we'll be fine."