W. Squash falls short to rival Princeton yet again

The previously undefeated Penn women's squash team lost 7-2 to the defending national champion Tigers at Princeton. The Penn women's squash team headed to Princeton last night with an unblemished 6-0 mark, a perfect 54-0 individual match record and national title aspirations. Two hours later, the Quakers hobbled out of Old Nassau with the defending national champion Tigers owning a 7-2 victory. "We lost 7-2 to Princeton in a match that really could have been a win for us," Penn coach Demer Holleran said. "Everyone's very disappointed." Holleran, who garnered All-American status in each of her four years at Princeton and led the Tigers to a national championship in her senior year, brought the Penn squad to her alma mater with high hopes. Penn has finished third in the nation in each of the past three seasons. This year's impressive start, however, had the Quakers (6-1, 3-1 Ivy League) dreaming of finally knocking off the Tigers for their first Ivy crown. Princeton (7-0, 2-0) all but derailed Penn's hopes of finishing No. 1, though, as the Tigers claimed 3-0 victories at the third, fourth and fifth spots on the ladder. "Tonight they were definitely better fighters," said Regina Borromeo, Penn's No. 5. But the 7-2 final does not indicate just how close the Quakers actually came to winning. "When it's so close that you can see the victory and you let down? it's very disappointing," Borromeo said. In addition to a 3-0 win by Dana Lipson at No. 6 and three-time first-team All-American Jessica DiMauro's 3-2 victory at No. 2, Penn had several near-misses that could have altered the course of the match. "We felt we could have won this match 6-3 or 5-4," Holleran said. "Katie Patrick [lost] at No. 1 to Princeton's Julia Beaver, who's really a great player, and Katie could've beaten her. It was 9-5 in the fifth." Patrick's loss was one of two 3-2 Princeton victories last night. Nevertheless, Holleran was pleased with the sophomore's play against Beaver, who last year became the first athlete to be named Ivy League Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year in the same season. "I'm proud of her and the way she played," Holleran said of Patrick. "She could've played better at the end of the match, but really she worked hard and proved herself." For DiMauro, the loss marked the fourth time in her career that Penn has fallen at the hands of the Tigers. But the senior remained upbeat about her team's performance. "I'm disappointed about the loss, but it's not discouraging," DiMauro said, "because everyone knows just how close we are and we have another shot at them." The Quakers still have a shot at a three-way tie for No. 1 if they defeat Harvard on February 13 and the Tigers lose to the Crimson the following day. Last night's loss also provided Penn with a chance to re-evaluate its play. "We did have a lot of close matches that really we could have won," Holleran said. "So I think people are? hoping to make improvements in the next few weeks before we play another tough match." Penn heads back to Princeton Friday for the Constable Invitational before resuming match play February 13. "[The Constable Invitational] is sort of an invitational with the top 20 players in intercollegiate squash," Holleran said. "Jessica [DiMauro] and Katie [Patrick] both have a chance to win that tournament, and Helen [Bamber] hopefully will win some matches. For the others, if you win, it's great." The tournament provides an excellent proving ground for Penn while not counting towards the team's record. "It's great for pride, but it doesn't go into the record," Holleran said. "I expect that they'll compete hard [this weekend], that they'll gain experience and that it will stand them in that much better a position to win."

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