The famously raucous crowd in Annapolis, Md., Wednesday night was no match for Gilly Lane and the Penn men's squash team.
The Quakers defeated Navy, 9-0, with notable performances coming from junior Jon Katz and the number one ranked player on the team, freshman Gilly Lane.
Katz defeated Navy junior Luke Koran by an astounding score of 27-0. Lane also won swiftly, smashing his opponent in three sets by the scores of 9-1, 9-0, and 9-2.
Going into last night's match, the Quakers (2-2, 1-1 Ivy) were aware of the challenge they would face playing in front of the rowdy Navy crowd. According to coach Craig Thorpe-Clark, however, the noise level proved to be little more than a character builder for the young team.
The crowd "wasn't as big as it was last time we were there, but it was a pretty rowdy crew," Thorpe-Clark said. "It was a good experience to play in front of a noisy, boisterous crowd."
Though owners of an impressive 10-5 record, including games against higher-ranked opponents, the 16th-ranked Midshipmen have hardly lived up to their imposing win total. After seeing Navy lose convincingly to higher-ranked opponents such as No. 8 Dartmouth and No. 15 Bowdoin, Thorpe-Clark was confident that last night's match would not be too hard.
"Nobody was really under any pressure," Thorpe-Clark said in regard to the Quakers. "This wasn't the strong Navy team they've had in the past."
As for the play of his own team, Thorpe-Clark was pleased with the Quakers' solid overall play, noting specifically the team's keen court sense.
"The guys played pretty good," Thorpe-Clark said. "We played smart, aggressive squash and we took advantage of openings on the court."
This weekend the Quakers travel to Massachusetts for the formidable task of playing two ranked opponents in one day. At 11 a.m. Saturday the Quakers will play 11th-ranked Amherst, and at 5 p.m. the Quakers will square off against 10th-ranked Williams.
Thorpe-Clark hopes that the team can carry last night's dominating play into the weekend, when endurance and, more importantly, poise will be the key to success.
"This is a morale booster," Thorpe-Clark said. "We really won pretty decisively. The important thing is that we carry this win into this weekend's matches and that we play with confidence."
