W. Squash looks for first national title

The regular season national champion Quakers play in the Howe Cup for the team title at Yale. On Sunday, the Penn women's squash team ended its regular season on top of the nation. Today, the Quakers open up the postseason, and they'll have to start all over again to stay at the top. The Ivy League champions are at Yale today to compete in the three-day Howe Cup national team championships. The winner of the Cup will be crowned the national champion of collegiate women's squash. Penn, through the benefit of finishing the regular season as the top-ranked team in the country, possesses the first seed in the eight-team tournament and will face eighth-seeded Cornell in the quarterfinals this afternoon at 3 p.m. In their regular season opener on November 20, the Quakers -- en route to a perfect Ivy season of six wins and no losses -- easily defeated the Big Red by a score of 7-2. For a variety of reasons, the Quakers are confident that they can do it again. "I don't actually feel that it's dangerous to look past [Cornell] because they're actually weaker than when we beat them before," Penn coach Demer Holleran said, referring to "two or three" Cornell players who are spending the semester studying abroad. "In beating them 7-2, that was on their narrow courts, which are very different from the standard ones we're playing on here, so I feel pretty confident going into that," Holleran added. Penn will sit junior Lauren Patrizio today to rest her knee for this weekend's tougher matches. Patrizio suffered a knee injury in the first half of the season and, according to Holleran, has had tendinitis in it. Patrizio said she feels soreness in her knee after matches. She hopes to be back in the No. 5 spot and in top playing condition tomorrow. Senior Katie Patrick, who finished 8-3 while playing all season at the No. 1 position for the Quakers, will clash with Cornell's Olga Puidgemont-Solaat. Patrick lost a pair of close matches to Puidgemont-Solaat earlier this season -- one during the victory over the Big Red and one at the Constable Invitational individual competition at Princeton in late January -- but hopes that the third time is charm. Because of Cornell's narrow squash courts and the individualized nature of the Constable Invitational, Holleran feels that Patrick's losses were not significant. But Patrick's teammate, senior Paige Kollock, feels that Puidgemont-Solaat already has an edge today. "It's a lot easier to beat someone you've already beaten," Penn senior Paige Kollock said. "Olga, the Cornell girl, has an advantage coming in. However, Katie's a great competitor, and she often rises to the occasion." Last weekend, the Quakers rose to the occasion and completed their first-ever Ivy League championship season -- after a 24-year drought -- with a road sweep of Harvard and Dartmouth. Those same two squads -- ranked fourth and fifth, respectively -- will face off today. Should Penn defeat Cornell today, it will face off against the Harvard-Dartmouth winner tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. Second-seeded Princeton, along with Brown, Trinity and host school Yale, round out the field of teams competing this weekend. Trinity will battle Yale today, while the seventh-seeded Bears will try to upset the Tigers. The Quakers -- who defeated Princeton for the first time ever by a score of 5-4 on January 26 -- see the Tigers as their stiffest competition. The Quakers' margin of victory over the Tigers was its slimmest in its perfect 8-0 season. Should Penn advance, it feels that Princeton is the team that will most likely be waiting for it in Sunday's championship match. Last year, Princeton won the 1998-99 national championship by beating Harvard in the Howe Cup finals. But during the regular season, Harvard had beaten Princeton. The Quakers hope that history will not repeat itself. "[Princeton] lost to us in the regular season this year and probably are looking to beat us," Holleran said. Penn is nevertheless confident in its ability to control its own destiny. "Our own play is a huge determinant of how well we'll do in [the Princeton] match," Holleran said. "If we can play at our best standard, I think we'll be able to beat them, but if there are one or two people in our lineup who don't produce their best squash, we're really at risk of losing that match." While their optimism is guarded, the Quakers are enjoying the fact that they are three wins away from a national title. "I think there's a lot of pride and, at the same time, a sense that we haven't fully accomplished our mission," Holleran said. "We are definitely excited. We're reveling in our glory, but at the same time Demer has reminded us that's it not over yet? We'll be celebrating. I will be, anyway." Kollock said, laughing.

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