W. Squash dominates Fords at Ringe Squash Courts, 9-0

After beating Franklin & Marshall, 9-0, and losing only one game in the match, it would seem that the Penn women's squash players could not have done better yesterday against Haverford.

They did.

The Quakers took all nine best-of-five matches from the Fords, winning all 27 games and allowing only 18 points all day to Penn's 243.

The afternoon featured four perfect matches. Sophomores Elizabeth Evans, Tyler Pearce, Morgan Olson and junior Caitlin O'Neil put up scores of 9-0, 9-0, 9-0 against their opponents.

In the No. 1 match on the ladder, Penn freshman Annie Barrett defeated Julia Grayer, 9-0, 9-1, 9-1, to improve to 2-0 in this young season.

Lorin Riley, Penn's No. 2 player, defeated Jessie Elton, 9-2, 9-1, 9-0 in the other match on the main court.

Both Barrett and Riley used devastating corner shots to keep their foes away from the wall, and the shots were often unreturnable.

Junior Rohini Gupta and sophomores Missy Cosgrave and Colleen Gurda also won for the Quakers, who once again rested some of their top players.

Penn coach Jim Martel liked getting some of his less experienced players in the matches.

"Getting these matches done early is good so we can concentrate on the tougher part of the season," he said.

Penn's top players will certainly be needed Saturday, as Penn travels to Ithaca, N.Y., to play matches against Cornell and the University of Toronto.

According to Martel, junior Linda McNair will play as the No. 1 rank this weekend, and she will be followed at No. 2 by freshman Paula Pearson, both of whom will be competing in their first matches of the season.

Third will be Radhika Ahluwalia, also playing her first match. At four will be Rhea Bhandare, who also sat today, but won as the No. 1 player against Franklin & Marshall.

Martel does not believe the two matches in a few hours will be a problem, citing his team's experience at the Ivy League scrimmages, where the Quakers played five matches in two days.

"It's not uncommon to play two matches of squash in one day," Martel said.

While he is not worried about the schedule, Penn will face much tougher competition than it did in their first two matches.

Penn defeated Cornell, 8-1, in their scrimmage, but Martel believes that the result "may not be a fair indication," as the matches were best-of-three.

Penn will face the University of Toronto for the first time this season.

Barrett, who will likely play at No. 5, worried about the Blues' top tandem, saying, "They have two of the best players in Canada."

Under Canadian athletic rules, graduate students are allowed to play varsity sports. This weekend, Penn will be facing two of the top six players in all of Canada in Carolyn Russell, a ninth-year graduate student in management, and Katie Patrick, an MBA student.

Martel does not worry about rust in McNair and Pearson's play against this duo.

"Fitness-wise, they're ready to go now."

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