Men's Squash unhappy with its weekend split

The Penn men's squash team took the good with the bad in its weekend trip to New England.

After getting crushed by No. 4 Yale 8-1 in New Haven, Conn., the Quakers (1-2, 1-2) rallied in Providence, R.I. and eked out a 5-4 win over No. 8 Brown.

"We weren't happy with our performances," said freshman Jacob Himmelrich, who won his match in Providence playing in the number four slot.

"The Ivy League is such a tough squash conference that we felt pretty lucky to get away 1-1 on the weekend," he added.

In New Haven, Penn struggled early and quickly found themselves behind in many of its matches. Sophomore and team No. 1 Richard Repetto posted the only Quaker win on the day.

"Those guys were the aggressors," Penn head coach Craig Thorpe-Clark said of the Elis. "We tended to be more defensive."

Yale is "probably going to be one of the top two or three teams in the Ivy and the entire country" this season, said senior co-captain Sam Miller.

On the way to Providence, Thorpe-Clark tried to rally the troops after their loss to the Elis.

"I told them... that we had to take the good things that Yale did and then implement them for ourselves against Brown," he said. "That we need to be the aggressors, the players in front."

Himmelrich, Repetto, sophomore Drew Crockett, and juniors Dan Rottenberg and Matt Vergare won their matches on Sunday, leading the Red and Blue to their first regular-season victory.

But in the eyes of many on the team, the result wasn't as convincing as it could have been.

"We were lucky," Miller said. "We told ourselves all week not to take for granted the fact that we had beaten them earlier in the season."

The Quakers dominated a preseason scrimmage against the Bears, winning 8-1.

"I would say that this year we have higher expectations for ourselves than a 5-4 win over Brown," said Himmelrich.

Thorpe-Clark was quick to note some of the intricacies of the Yale and Brown courts.

"They have different types of courts," Thorpe-Clark said. Brown's "tended to be a little bouncier," and Yale's "were very hot" because of the overhead lights.

"Things like that... can throw off your timing a little bit, make life a little difficult."

Miller pointed to Brown's "extremely loud and extremely obnoxious" fans as a factor.

"It's one thing to yell and scream for your player; it's another to be annoying and obnoxious about it," he said.

The team is now off until Jan. 5, when it will cross the Atlantic and spend a week in London touring the city and playing against a number of British clubs.

It is a break from tradition for the squad, which usually reconvenes in Philadelphia the week before classes resume.

"We'll get a lot of playing in, but it's really a good bonding experience," Miller said. "Only good things can come of it."

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