W. Squash beats Ephs, drops two

For the Penn women's squash team, this weekend was perhaps the biggest of the year to this point.

Unfortunately for the No. 5 Quakers, after starting with an 8-1 victory over Williams Friday, they suffered a pair of crushing defeats at the hands of Harvard and Dartmouth.

Against Williams, the Quakers were able to turn in some very strong performances to take the top eight matches, losing only the ninth match on the ladder, 3-0.

One of the more impressive victories was that of freshman Elizabeth Kern in the eighth match. Kern went down in each her first three games before coming back to take the 3-0 win.

"I think after the first game when I was able to come back and win that, it gave me a little more confidence that I was able to do that in the other games too," Kern said.

At the seventh spot on the Penn ladder, freshman Chloe Wynne faced an old high school rival in Joanna Leathers. After being unable to defeat Leathers in high school, Wynne reversed that trend with a 3-0 win.

"I used to be a little intimidated, but I've gotten a lot more confident this year, realizing that I do have a pretty good game," Wynne said.

"The attitude going in, they just had a really good positive attitude," Penn coach Jack Wyant said. "They were relaxed yet serious and it just all went right for us today."

Penn had added pressure this weekend as the stands were packed with squash alumni in town for a reunion.

"We approached this weekend in a really relaxed manner," added Radhika Ahluwalia, who plays No. 2 on the Penn ladder. "We just wanted to have fun and play well and not stress out about it because it's easy to get overwhelmed and stressed out with all the people here."

Saturday, the Quakers were not able to fare as well. They fell to fourth-ranked Harvard 8-1.

Wynne was the only Penn player to win even a game, coming back from down two games to none to win her match 3-2.

"Chloe Wynne had a great match at No. 7, coming back from 2-0 down," Wyant said. "She showed a lot of heart, and hopefully that will be a big boost of confidence for her as a freshman."

There were few other bright spots, it seemed, for a Penn squad that did not win another game. Wyant, however, felt that the team achieved positive results, despite the outcome.

"We had a rough day, but we're continuing to make progress. We've got a plan, and we're on track."

Yesterday, the Quakers dropped another Ivy League matchup, this time a 6-3 decision to Dartmouth, which was ranked a spot below Penn coming in.

While the Quakers were helped out by their youth -- freshmen Wynne and Lauralynn Drury joined sophomore Paula Pearson as the only winners on the day -- Wyant said that there just wasn't much the Quakers could do against a Dartmouth team that was just too strong.

"It wasn't meant to be for us today," Wyant said.

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