When the Penn men's squash team wins, it wins big.
The Quakers defeated both George Washington University and Amherst College by identical scores of 9-0 on Saturday afternoon at Ringe Courts.
These were the Quakers' fourth and fifth sweeps of the current season, in which they have a total of six wins.
The team has consistently shown why it is the nation's fourth-ranked team, having lost only to Yale, which is ranked one spot higher.
Penn's wins have come against such highly ranked teams as Cornell, Princeton (at Ivy Scrimmages) and Navy, respectively positioned at No. 6, 11 and 13.
On Saturday, the Quakers faced opponents situated a little lower down in the rankings. Amherst sits at No. 14, while GW is struggling to maintain its spot at No. 23.
As was expected, Penn completely controlled all of the action on Saturday.
Coach Craig Thorpe-Clark could not elaborate much on the details of any specific matches, simply because all but one of the 18 had the same 3-0 result.
"All of our guys were the dominant player in their matches," Thorpe-Clark said. "They got to the tee and controlled the pace of the game."
Senior Rich Repetto, playing in the No. 1 spot against GW, was one of five Quakers players who notched two victories on the day.
Repetto got his chance to compete at No. 1 because the Quakers' top player, sophomore Gilly Lane, was given a rest in order to allow some of the team's lower-ranked players to see some action.
Lane, along with sophomore Ben Ende, returned to compete in his usual position against Amherst in the second match of the day. Both continued their stellar play and had no difficulties in joining their teammates in the winners' circle.
While Saturday's matches were certainly not a tough challenge for the Quakers, their coach believes that the bouts were good practice for the team as they "get back in the swing of things" after winter break.
The team did return to school a week early in order to get back to practicing, but Thorpe-Clark believes any additional "match practice" is just more preparation for the Quakers' big matchup this Saturday against top-ranked Trinity College.
Sure to be the Quakers' toughest of the season, Saturday's match against Trinity has long been a major focus.
Thorpe-Clark said that his team's goal at the outset of the season was to "realize our full potential as a team," and a win against Trinity would certainly contribute to this aim.
