Saturday afternoon presents a tremendous opportunity for the Penn men's squash team -- a matchup agains the No. 1 team in the country, Trinity (Conn.) College.
Penn (5-5) will look to knock off a highly touted Trinity team that is unbeaten in over 50 consecutive matches.
The Quakers understand how formidable an opponent the Bantams are. Besides looking to upset the defending national champions, Penn will use this weekend's match as a learning experience.
"You don't get better as a team by playing the 35th ranked team in the country," Penn third year head coach Craig Thorpe-Clark said.
Penn does not dispute the abundance of talent on the Bantams.
"Trinity is pretty much a team of nine number one's," Thorpe-Clark said.
The feature fight of this weekend's match is at the No. 1 position.
Penn freshman Richard Repetto will put his 8-0 record on the line against the No. 1 ranked player in the country, freshman Bernardo Samper.
"This weekend is basically the most important match of the year for me personally," Repetto said. "I am anxious to go out and beat Samper."
Repetto's coach shares this view.
"Rich is more than capable of winning, but he will have to play well to do so," Thorpe-Clark said. "The other matches will be uphill battles."
While the Quakers recognize they are the clear underdog in this weekend's match, Penn will take the court with the goal of upsetting Trinity.
"We're gonna have to go out on the court and give it all we've got," senior Roberto Kriete said. "There are going to be a lot of difficult matches. We can only go out and try our best."
Although the Quakers would love to defeat Trinity, they recognize that the match is a perfect opportunity to prepare for other upcoming matches.
After the Bantams, Penn will welcome No. 4 Princeton to the Ringe Squash Courts on Jan. 31.
"We are capable of defeating Princeton," Thorpe-Clark said. "Rich should win at No. 1, and we have more depth than Princeton at the lower positions on the ladder."
Kriete team agrees with Penn's head man on the Red and Blue's upcoming matches.
"We will use this weekend's match as a tool to get in gear for the level of play Princeton will bring," Kriete said.
The Quakers will enter this weekend with lofty goals of taking down the No. 1 team in the country, but will also think of using the Trinity match as a stepping stone to further success.
"Trinity will help us to get our racquets swinging in the right direction for the rest of the season," Kriete said.
