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Sophomore Elan Levy came away with his first win of the season as Penn beat Vassar. (Jacques-Jean Tiziou/The Daily Pennsylvanian)

The Penn men's squash team's convincing victory over Vassar on Saturday proved that a month between matches could not derail the Quakers. Penn, which entered the match with a 1-3 record, collected five 3-0 victories on their way to beating the Brewers, 7-2, at Franklin and Marshall. The Red and Blue fielded a lineup that hit the courts without John Griffin, Sam Miller or Jason Lam -- three of the team's regular top four players. The only regular at the top of the order, Penn senior co-captain Peter Withstandley, registered his second victory of the season against Andrew Schmidt. Schmidt, a co-captain in his senior season at Vassar, lost the match 3-1. Penn sophomores Elan Levy and Matt Stone each recorded their first wins of the season. Levy swept junior Jarod Pennypacker at the No. 5 position and Stone needed only four games to dispatch junior Pat Healy at No. 7. Vassar's Vikram Lakhwara downed Penn senior co-captain Will Ruthrauff, while Tim Shea downed Quakers junior Matt Juraska. Ruthrauff and Juraska had moved up in the lineup to the second and third spots, respectively, to fill in for their missing teammates. The big story this season for the Quakers continues to be the solid play of its newcomers. "I am particularly impressed with the way the freshmen are handling themselves," Ruthrauff said. "In many ways they are the backbone of this team and an indication of how strong we will be in a few years." Freshman Matt Vergare moved up three spots to No. 4 for the Quakers and proceeded to sweep junior Stefan Pasymowski. "There was a little bit of pressure in moving up, because I didn't know what to expect," Vergare said. "I started off slowly, but turned it around and ended up with a quick victory." Freshman Dan Rottenberg notched his team-high third victory of the season over Vassar senior Tucker Hughes. Charlie Fuller, continuing his solid play at No. 9, picked up his second win of the season. Joining in on the freshman victory parade was Penn's David Ferriera, who defeated junior Matt Karson in his first career match. The strong performance of Penn's youngsters in the absence of some of its top players bodes well for the Red and Blue. Penn enters the season as a young team and quick maturation from the freshmen is vital to its success. Next on the schedule for the Quakers is Navy, whom the Red and Blue have been awaiting for a while now. "We had an intense week of practice leading up to the Vassar match," Juraska said. "It was good preparation for our match against Navy tomorrow." Navy is the 12th-ranked team in the nation. Penn is currently ranked 10th, and its team members believe that they match up favorably with the Midshipmen. "Navy is obviously close to us, and it should be a good match," Ruthrauff said. "We are a lot stronger than last year when we lost 5-4, and I expect them to be about the same." The match will be played at the Ringe Courts today at 6 p.m.

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