Princeton, N.J. -- The Penn squash teams turned in a largely disappointing performance at Princeton last night. For the men, it was a case of falling just short. For the women, it was simply that they never even came close.
The Quakers men (5-3, 2-2 Ivy) lost 6-3, narrowly missing out on multiple victories.
Perhaps the nearest miss was that experienced by Penn senior Richard Repetto, number two on Penn's ladder. Repetto fought back from being down two games to one. But Repetto eventually fell to Princeton's Robert Hong 3-2, nearly taking the final game before losing 9-7.
Princeton (3-1, 2-1) ended up sweeping the top four matches in the ladder, until freshman Lee Rosen bucked the trend with a 3-0 victory in the fifth spot.
At the top spot, Quakers sophomore Gilly Lane lost a tough match to Princeton's Yasser El Halaby -- the top-ranked player in college squash, and the two-time defending national champion.
Lane jumped out quickly, mounting a 4-2 lead in the first game. But El Halaby quickly adjusted to Lane's style of play and then took complete control of the match.
El Halaby won the final 25 consecutive points to put Lane away, 3-0.
"Princeton played better," Penn coach Craig Thorpe-Clark said. "They were doing all the things we've been working on, planning to do, but they got there first.
"We had been planning on winning this, so it's a little disappointing any time you have a close match, but that's the way it goes."
The Quakers men, like the women, have been fighting off the flu in recent days, something that may have ended up costing them at Princeton.
"Were they on their 'A' game? Not quite," Thorpe-Clark said. "Would that have made a difference? Who knows."
Among the sick players was freshman Spencer Kurn, who was able to pull out an impressive 3-2 victory despite his illness. Unfortunately, his effort was not enough to keep the team afloat.
Although they came away with a disappointing loss, the Quakers will look to regain the momentum they had accumulated prior to last weekend's 9-0 loss to Trinity. Before that match Penn had won four in a row.
"These are the matches that can sort of define your season, but they're also sometimes the best learning opportunities," Thorpe-Clark said. "It's the close ones that are really the good matches to learn from."
The Penn women's squash team (3-2, 2-2) fared even worse than the men. The team lost 9-0, failing to win a single game all night against the Tigers (6-0, 3-0).
"I'm disappointed," women's coach Jack Wyant said. "I expected more from the team. They didn't show up to play tonight.
"If you're the underdog, you need to do the little things right. You can't make unforced errors. You need to prepare in a professional manner. You need to have the mentality that you aren't going to give an inch, and we didn't have that today."
"They just performed better today," team captain Rohini Gupta echoed. "I think we could have given them a much better game than we did."
The team's coach is hopeful that the Red and Blue will also be able to take something positive out of this match, despite the lopsided score.
"I think that they're going to learn from this, and I think that our next matches, we'll be better prepared," Wyant said. "And the results -- I think we'll play better."
Men's Squash
Princeton 6, PENN 3
1. El Halaby (P'ton) def. Lane (Penn) 3-0 (9-4, 9-0 9-0)
2. Hong (P'ton) def. Repetto (Penn) 3-2 (3-9, 9-6, 9-1, 6-9, 9-7)
3. Gilman (P'ton) def. Ende (Penn) 3-0(9-1, 9-5, 9-0)
4. Comey (P'ton) def. Himmelrich (Penn) 3-1 (9-5,9-7, 7-9, 10-8)
5. Rosen (Penn) def. McKay (P'ton) 3-0(2-9, 5-9, 5-9)
6. Kurn (Penn) def. Sutton (P'ton) 3-2 (9-1, 4-9, 9-1, 7-9, 6-9)
7. Yu (P'ton) over Bardawil (Penn) 3-0(9-3, 10-8, 9-2)
8. Siverd (P'ton) def. Emerson (Penn)3-0 (9-7, 9-2, 9-6)
9. Crockett (Penn) def. Callahan (P'ton) 3-0 (2-9, 6-9, 2-9)
Women's Squash
Princeton 9, PENN 0
1. Rein-Weston (P'ton) def. Pearson (Penn) 3-0 (9-7,9-5,9-6)
2. Hiltz (P'ton) def. Ahluwalia (Penn) 3-0 (9-0,9-7,9-2)
3. Lessard (P'ton) def. Drury (Penn) 3-0(9-2,9-4,9-0)
4. Fast (P'ton) def. Russell (Penn) 3-0(9-4,9-0,10-8)
5. Kent (P'ton) def. Gupta (Penn) 3-0(9-2,9-1,9-3)
6. Grabowski (P'ton) def. Barrett (Penn) 3-0 (9-3,9-1,9-2)
7. Nolan (P'tom) def. Wynne (Penn) 3-0 (9-1,9-1,9-2)
8. McKay (P'ton) def. Kern (Penn) 3-0(9-0,9-3,9-5)
9. Gadsden (P'ton) def. O'Neil (Penn) 3-0 (9-3,9-1,9-0)
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