Penn junior Richard Repetto has already faced his likely first- round opponent in this weekend's season-ending College Squash Association Individual Championships, Princeton freshman Vincent Yu.
In fact, the 15th-ranked Repetto handled the Tigers' No. 2 player in three games.
But Repetto faltered in the third game after winning the first two easily, coming back to squeak by Yu for the sweep, 10-9. He knows that he cannot take any games off this time.
The same holds true for the other six Quakers who will be competing for All-American honors in Canton, N.Y.
On the men's side, No. 12 freshman Gilly Lane will be joining Repetto in the top bracket of 32 players, while No. 40 freshman Ben Ende will be in the lower 32.
The Penn women will be sending four players, junior Linda McNair, freshmen Paula Pearson and Radhika Ahluwalia and sophomore Rhea Bhandare, ranked No. 17, 18, 23 and 26, respectively.
The Penn players in action this weekend have to focus solely on themselves and cannot be picked up by a teammate if they falter. They may need that more than ever in an event featuring the top players in the country.
"It's a tough tournament," men's squash coach Craig Thorpe-Clark said.
They also have to play up to five matches during the weekend, as opposed to the usual one or two in the dual-match season.
"You have to be really careful that you're well rested," Ende said. "It's going to be a long weekend."
But there are a few positives to this format.
"There's less to think about," Pearson said.
For the coaches, having only one player going at a time, compared with at least three during the dual-match season, makes their jobs significantly easier.
"We can give better information," Thorpe-Clark said. He added that because he can watch the whole match instead of rotating, he can "give better information" to his players.
Women's coach Jim Martel also called the format "easier" on the coaches.
In addition to the possibility of facing opponents for the second or third time this season, which Ahluwalia called "a good opportunity to get revenge," there is also a chance that Penn players could end up facing each other.
"It would be fun," Pearson said. She added that the level of competition would not suffer if two Quakers were to face off.
"We both want to win," she said.
