W. Squash blanks Diplomats

Top-ranked Penn easily defeated Franklin & Marshall. The No. 1-ranked Penn women's squash team proved to be too much for Franklin and Marshall to handle, overpowering the Diplomats 9-0 to improve to 2-0 on the season. Making the score even more impressive was the fact that Penn coach Demer Holleran left her best players back home. In particular, senior co-captains Katie Patrick and Paige Kollock did not see any action. "We really rose to the occasion," Holleran said. "The higher-ranked players on the team had classes and exams, so some of the less experienced players were given a chance to play." And play they did. Quakers senior Keelin Nelson, who previously had never played in a varsity match, won her debut 3-1 at the No. 9 spot in what Holleran called "the longest and most exciting match of the day." "I played pretty well," a jubilant Nelson said, "and because my match was the last match of the day, the rest of my team was there to cheer me on." Nelson attributed her success to her teammates' advice. "Patti [Lin] and Runa [Reta] helped me discover my opponent's weakness," Nelson said. "As soon as I knew that she couldn't return balls played in the back of the court, I just exploited that." Nelson was not the only inexperienced Quaker to win a match yesterday. Sophomore Suzette Solomon won handily over her opponent 3-0 at the No. 8 spot. Solomon was one of six Quakers to sweep 3-0. One of those 3-0 winners was freshman Runa Reta, who played in the top spot for the first time. Reta called it a "strong" effort but said that the match was not as easy as the score indicates. "Although I didn't have to play at the top of my game," Reta said, "my opponent did make me play hard." Reta also overcame great adversity in her victory -- she accidentally wore two different styles of sneakers. "At times my footwork was thrown off," Reta said. "It just added to the overall emotion of the victory." Megan Fuller, Christina Eynon, Patti Lin, Eliza Jacobs, Lauren Mann and Alex Black picked up wins for the top-ranked Quakers at the second through seventh spots on the ladder against the Diplomats. This weekend, the excitement will come from more than just mismatched sneakers, as the undefeated Quakers host two tough Ivy teams -- Yale at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday and Brown at 1:30 p.m. the following day.