The Penn women's squash team opened its home non-conference schedule with easy wins against considerably weaker opponents.
Its first Ivy League guests may not be as friendly.
Penn (4-0) has two top-10 showdowns this weekend as the No. 4 Quakers take on No. 3 Yale Saturday and No. 8 Brown the following afternoon at the Ringe Courts.
Yale (1-0) was ranked behind No. 2 Harvard in the preseason poll, but Penn coach Jim Martel disagrees.
"I think they're the best team in the Ivies," Martel said of the Elis, who are led by last year's Ivy League Rookie of the Year Michelle Quibell.
Penn's No. 1 player, junior Linda McNair, will draw the assignment of facing Quibell, ranked fourth by the College Squash Association.
McNair expects to play a relaxed, confident opponent, qualities that she thinks she can use to her advantage.
"I'm going into it with more of an attitude of surprising her," McNair said. "You're really going to have to work if you're going to win this game."
Although this is the teams' first and only meeting of the regular season, Penn and Yale have played each other before at the Nov. 1 Ivy League scrimmages. Yale defeated Penn, 8-1, in the Quakers' third match of the day.
Penn sophomore Missy Cosgrave -- who will likely play No. 8 this weekend -- thinks the scrimmages were not telling of her team's true ability.
"We had already played two matches that day, so it wasn't really a fair judgment," she said.
On Sunday, Brown (0-1), a team that Penn defeated 8-1 at the scrimmages, travel to Philly.
Even though this match is less of a chance to make a statement, the Quakers are still excited, especially McNair, who will be on the court with a familiar opponent.
At the top of Brown's ladder sits junior All-American Lillian Rosenthal. Her rivalry with McNair goes back to her days at the Middlesex School in Concord, Mass., while McNair attended St. Paul's in Concord, N.H.
"We've played all through high school," McNair said. "It's always a tough match for us."
Penn looks to ride on its momentum into this weekend after convincing wins last weekend over Cornell and the University of Toronto.
The exact lineups this weekend hinge on the results of challenge matches held during mid-week practices.
Freshmen Paula Pearson and Radhika Ahluwalia will likely play No. 2 and No. 3, respectively.
Sophomores Rhea Bhandare, Lorin Riley and Elizabeth Evans, freshman Annie Barrett and junior Rohini Gupta should round out Penn's ladder.
