W. Squash finishes in third place again

With one last chance to redeem itself, the Penn women's squash team fell just short -- again. After a No. 3 finish during the dual-match season, the Quakers reaffirmed their regular season record with a third-place finish at the Howe Cup, played at Harvard's Murr Center over the weekend. Over the past three years, Penn has had a virtual stranglehold on the nation's No. 3 position, finishing behind Princeton and Harvard each time. The Tigers and Crimson have thwarted each and every Quakers challenge for No. 1 in the past 22 years. However, coming into this year's championship with the deepest and most talented team in recent memory, Penn felt confident that it could defeat its Ivy rivals. After a dominating performance in a 9-0 victory over Yale in the quarterfinals, the Quakers appeared ready to peak against Princeton in the semifinals. Penn's minor lineup adjustments at No. 7 and No. 8 proved futile, however, as the Quakers fell hard to the eventual champion Tigers 7-2 -- a score identical to their regular season showdown on January 27. The team was torn in its evaluation of the semifinal match. When asked why the Quakers were unable to match Princeton's intensity, junior No. 1 Katie Patrick responded simply, "I'm not sure." Although Penn coach Demer Holleran said that Princeton "was simply a better team," some Quakers claimed that it was more than just a disparity in talent that caused Penn's demise. "I personally was really upset because there are a lot of team issues that hurt the team," said sophomore Lauren Patrizio, who was unwilling to name specifics. "I think the unity of this team was not there and that's why we lost. I think Princeton, as a team, wanted to win more than we did. "I do not feel that any specific individual let us down. It was just a team breakdown. I do not think that we had the killer instinct as a whole." In the end, the most challenging aspect of the weekend for Penn was finding the motivation to rebound in the third-place match against Trinity. Forced to settle for the bronze once again, it was difficult for some Quakers to handle. "We felt a little deflated. It was a little bit tough to get up for the next day, but everybody did," Patrick said. "We did not particularly want to be playing for third. Even though we knew Trinity was going to be a tough match, it was difficult to get ourselves motivated." Fortunately, they were able to refocus themselves. Due to what Holleran calls "incredible team pride and toughness," the Quakers performed as expected in defeating the Bantams 9-0, just as they had during the regular season. "We were more relieved than excited," Patrick said. "It was just living up to what was expected of us, but it wasn't any better." Penn ended the season with its only blemishes -- dual meets and tournaments combined -- coming against Princeton and Harvard. In all other matches the team owned a combined individual record of 63-0. Unfortunately, in order to be the best, they had to beat the best, and this was one area where the Quakers fell disappointingly short. Nonetheless, Penn is optimistic about the future. With both Princeton and Harvard graduating four or five of their top nine, the team feels that next year might just be their time to shine. But the Quakers also lose four seniors, three of whom were in their top nine. "I was really disappointed but I think it taught us that we need to be more mentally tough and [that is] where we need to improve if we want to beat Princeton and Harvard," Patrizio said. "For those of us still around [next season], it showed us what we need to do to be No. 1 next year."