A new weekend will mean the same difficult task for the Penn women's squash team.
Not discouraged by last week's losses to Princeton and Yale, the fifth-ranked Quakers (7-2, 2-2 Ivy) will travel to New England for crucial matches against No. 4 Harvard (4-1, 3-0) and No. 6 Dartmouth (8-3, 2-2).
Penn sophomore Lily Evans, who will move up to the No. 9 position in the ladder this weekend, feels that her team will enjoy the challenge.
"We're pumped to play those teams," Evans said. "We're not down about Yale and Princeton."
The Quakers lost, 6-3, to Harvard at the Ivy Scrimmages back on Nov. 1, but Penn coach Jim Martel thinks his team can match up well against the Crimson.
"I think Harvard is really strong at the top [of the ladder], but in the middle, we're as strong if not stronger," Martel said.
He drew the opposite conclusion from watching Sunday's opponent, Dartmouth, at the scrimmages and from its past history.
"Dartmouth is usually solid all the way through," he said. "They're very tough at home."
This weekend is crucial for the Quakers' seeding in the Howe Cup in two weeks. Harvard, Dartmouth and Penn appear to be in contention for the same spots and one of the other two may serve as a first-round opponent for the Red and Blue.
"That is our big goal," Evans said, referring to a high seed in the Howe Cup, which determines the Ivy championship. "Top five if not higher."
In addition to the importance for seeding, Sunday's match against Dartmouth will take on special meaning for Martel, who faces an old friend in sixth-year Big Green coach John Power.
"We were pros back in Toronto together," said Martel, who also works with Power at Dartmouth's summer program. "He's a good friend of mine and he'll have them ready."
Last week, the Quakers suffered their first two losses of the season, a 6-3 affair with Princeton and an 8-1 loss at the hands of Yale. These matches were part of a grueling stretch that continues with this weekend's road trip and finishes with No. 1 Trinity in Hartford, Conn., a week before the Howe Cup in New Haven.
Penn, which finished fourth in the nation last season, hopes to use this stretch to finish even stronger this year.
