The Penn women's squash team had a difficult stretch of three consecutive games this weekend, two of them against Ivy League opponents.
Beginning the weekend in sixth place in the league, the team was able to win two of three matches, splitting the two Ivy League contests, before heading into a winter break that will last over a month.
The Quakers (3-1, 2-1 Ivy) were impressive, defeating Franklin & Marshall on Friday night and Brown on Sunday without losing one game in either contest.
The Red and Blue was not able to produce an undefeated home stand, however. Yale remained undefeated and handed Penn its first loss.
The three-game home stand began Friday night at Ringe Courts against the Franklin & Marshall Diplomats (2-3). The Quakers were able to get off to a great start with dominating play against their intrastate rival.
The No. 2 and No. 3 players for the Quakers, freshmen Tara Chawla and Alisha Turner, did not lose a point in their games as they highlighted the lopsided match.
Saturday's game against Yale did not produce similar results. The two-time defending national and Howe Cup champion Elis (2-0, 1-0 Ivy) proved to still be championship-caliber as they defeated Penn 7-2.
The Quakers' No. 4 and No. 8 players, Turner and freshman Emily Goodwin, were the only players to win their flights in the Quakers' first league loss.
Considering how young a team it is, Penn was not entirely disappointed with their loss against the perennial power.
Indeed, encouraged by the solid play from his team, Penn head coach Jack Wyant was optimistic about the match.
"I'm pleased with the progress, and I'm looking for a good result tomorrow," he said.
The Quakers were able to produce that good result to bounce back from the loss. On Sunday, they demonstrated another dominating effort, this time against Brown (0-3, 0-3 Ivy). There were no flawless victories in this 9-0 win, as the Bears created many close games but did not take any from the Quakers.
"They did a great job today, they managed to win the close games," Wyant said.
Turner improved to 4-0 on the season, as only she and Goodwin were able to win all three of their flights in the home stand. The Quakers jumped up to fourth place in the Ancient Eight after the successful weekend.
The team will try to pick up where they left off against Brown when they face Williams and Amherst on the road after the break.
