W. Squash plucks the Bantams' feathers in another shutout

The Penn women's squash team opened the second semester with a dominating all-around performance, routing the Trinity Bantams 9-0 Saturday at Ringe Courts. This was the Quakers' first competitive match since the end of winter break, but the rust from the extended layoff was nowhere in sight as the team failed to lose a single match. Despite the team's 6-0 record this season, coach Demer Holleran has been constantly tinkering with the Penn lineup and the two players at the top have been anything but immune tothese adjustments. At the beginning of the season, junior Katie Patrick appeared to have secured the No. 1 position on the ladder, finally surpassing senior co-captain Jessica DiMauro, who had held the position for three consecutive years. Just prior to the team's trip to Yale and Brown before the break, however, DiMauro took back the position she had held for so long by defeating Patrick in a challenge match. Whether or not this see-saw battle for No. 1 is over or only beginning is anybody's guess, but on this day Patrick was the one leading the Quakers charge. "I was very pleased," Holleran said. "They had great focus. They looked very intense on the 'T.' Katie played terrific. She really beat that girl and to win two games 9-0 is tremendous." Patrick was able to implement the volleying she had been working on in practice effectively against Trinity sophomore Janine Thompson, whom Patrick defeated 3-1. Patrick's only slip was a slight dip in concentration after getting up 2-0 right out of the gate. But she was able to regroup quickly and close out the match. "The first two games I won 9-0, 9-0, real easily, so you get in a mindset that you'll win the third real easy too. It's tough to raise your game to the next level," Patrick said. "She's a strong player and has good length. She's pretty physical, too, bumping into me a lot. It sort of distracts you." Despite its failure to win a single match against the Quakers, Trinity was anything but intimidated by them. Trinity recently added two new foreign players, junior Gail Davie from England and freshman Samantha Lewis from Zimbabwe -- both of whom had only been practicing with the team for a week. According to Paige Vollmer, the Bantams' senior tri-captain, they are still trying to adjust to the different style of the American squash game. Trinity was also without its No. 2 player, who is out at least four weeks because of appendicitis. Due to these deficiencies, the Bantams believe that the next time they play the Quakers at full strength the result will be different. "I think that we were definitely well prepared. It is just too bad that we did not have our full lineup," senior tri-captain Betsy Paluck said. "We did the best we could with what we had. We will get them again at the Howe Cup." But the Quakers do not fear having to play Trinity again. Rather then being a fluke, they thought the victory was simply a matter of the Quakers having superior talent throughout the lineup. They even had a prediction of their own. "They will not get us at the Howe Cup," Patrick said. "Have we lost a match yet today? I do not think so. "We are beating them easily. It shows us we can beat anybody we want to which will be important when we play Princeton and Harvard. Our mental attitude is great. It is half the battle if you believe you can win." According to Holleran, one of the most impressive things about this match was that even the players in the 10 and 11 positions, whose matches do not count in the final score, competed hard and gave everything they had. "We can build momentum. We can get more mentally tough," said sophomore Regina Borromeo. "Technically we are ready for anybody. I think what decides who wins those tough matches is who is ready and more mentally tough on the court."