Sports Briefs: Friday, February 18, 2000

M. Squash victorious against Haverford The Quakers clobbered Haverford at the Ringe Squash Courts yesterday, 8-1. All eight of the Quakers wins came on 3-0 match scores. Their sole loss came out of the No. 1 spot, as sophomore Roberto Kriete, from San Salvador, El Salvador, lost in four tightly contested games in his first time in the No. 1 spot. Seniors Andrew Hopkins and Bill Bryan won the final home matches of their Penn careers in the No. 4 and No. 8 spots, respectively. Hopkins won easily -- 15-6, 15-4, and 15-2 -- for his team-leading eighth win of the season. Also recording wins were sophomores Mukund Khaitan, John Griffin, Will Ruthrauff and Vinil Shah in the Nos. 2, 3, 5 and 9 positions, respectively. Freshman Sam Miller at No. 6, and Vicky Singh at No. 7 also picked up wins for the Quakers. -- Sebastian Stockman Gymnastics, Tennis in action this weekend The Penn gymnastics team heads to Towson on Sunday for its last meet before the Ivy Classic, which is next Sunday at Cornell. The Quakers have been performing extremely well recently, breaking and tying school records in each of their last two meets. Penn's men's tennis team meanwhile, hosts Richmond at the Levy Pavilion tonight at 6 p.m. Coach Gordie Ernst's Quakers stand at 1-3 for the spring season. The Penn women's tennis team hits the road for the Princeton Invitational, which will be held at Old Nassau today through Sunday. The Red and Blue are currently 3-3 on the season. -- Jesse Spector Jordan voted by league as week's top player For the fourth time this season, Penn senior point guard Michael Jordan was named the Ivy League men's basketball Player of the Week, receiving the honor for the week ending February 14. Jordan last won this honor for the week ending January 31. Harvard's Dan Clemente, who has been Player of the Week twice, is the only other Ivy player to be recognized by the league multiple times this season. In both blowout victories over Harvard and Dartmouth at the Palestra last weekend, Jordan was the Quakers' high scorer, grabbing 20 points against the Crimson and knocking down 24 versus the Big Green. Against Dartmouth, Jordan sank five three-pointers, the fifth time in his Penn career that he had five three-pointers in one game. Jordan had a combined 44 points, seven rebounds, 10 assists and four steals in the two Ivy victories and was 14-for-21 from the field, including 8-for-12 from downtown. -- Ryan Kelly Ivy Player of the Week honors for West For the seventh time in 11 weeks, a member of the Penn women's basketball team was selected as Ivy League Player of the Week. This time it was Mandy West's turn. The senior guard from Upper St. Clair, Pa., earned the award for the second time this year. West scored 51 points, dished out 12 assists, grabbed four rebounds and had one block and one steal in Penn's games last weekend at Harvard and Dartmouth. Though she wasn't the high-scorer in the Quakers 78-76 win over the Crimson, West was instrumental in determining the outcome of this nail-biter. With the Quakers down one, West hit a three-pointer -- only her second bucket of the half -- to give the Quakers a 76-74 lead. Then, with 18 seconds remaining, West drained one free throw to seal the win for the Quakers -- only their fourth all-time at Lavietes Pavilion. In Hanover the following night, West had a team-high 28 points, but the Quakers -- in their first Ivy loss of the season -- were routed by the Big Green, 89-71. West hit ten three-pointers on the weekend. West now has 116 treys for her Penn career -- which is just under two seasons long -- making her fourth all-time. -- S.S. M. Hockey tops Tigers, heads for playoffs The Penn men's basketball team wasn't the only Red and Blue squad to tame a few Tigers this past week. For the first time in eight years, the Penn men's club ice hockey team defeated Princeton's club team last Saturday, 5-3. With the victory, the Quakers clinched a spot in the Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Hockey Association playoffs. Penn also blew out St. Joseph's on Sunday by a score of 8-3. The Quakers, who have been atop the standings of the Delaware Valley Collegiate Hockey Conference all season, will play their final regular season game tonight against Kutztown at the Class of 1923 Ice Rink at 5:15 p.m. Tomorrow, the Quakers will move on to the MACHA semifinals, which will be held at Monmouth. Should the Quakers win tomorrow, they will play for the MACHA championship on Sunday. At 20-7, the Quakers are ranked 11th in the Northeast region by the American Collegiate Hockey Association. -- R.K.