The men's squash team has not won a match against Western Ontario since junior captain Gilly Lane got to Penn, but don't blame him for this streak of futility.
Lane -- who is 3-0 against the Mustangs -- picked up one of the Quakers' two points in No. 5 Penn's loss to No. 6 Western Ontario yesterday.
The match capped a forgettable weekend at the College Squash Association Team Championships in Princeton, N.J., one in which the Quakers fell to No. 4 Harvard but beat No. 8 Dartmouth in the first and second rounds.
In the last team matches of the season, these outcomes were nothing out of the ordinary for the Red and Blue. Penn had the same result against each team earlier in the season.
Yesterday's loss marked the second time the Quakers have been upset by the Mustangs this season, but most seem to acknowledge that Western Ontario is the superior team.
"We were outplayed in that final match," said freshman Andrew Zimmerman, who went 1-2 on the weekend. "We all worked as hard as we could, but it didn't come out our way."
Knowing they put forth a good effort yesterday may give some solace to the Red and Blue, but the mediocre weekend was still a difficult pill to swallow.
"In my career, I've yet to beat them," Lane said. "It's frustrating when you know you work a lot harder than they do. ... There's definitely a bitter taste in our mouth."
Bitter, perhaps, because the Quakers know they were not at full strength.
Junior Ben Ende has been battling shoulder problems all year and will sit out next week's Individual Championships due to the injury. Fellow junior Graham Bassett also sustained a shoulder injury recently, and was forced to sit out the match against Western Ontario.
Coach Craig Thorpe-Clark, however, cited a demanding match schedule as a major reason behind the team's diminished performance last weekend.
"It was the third match in three days, and we'd had some psychological ups and downs," Thorpe-Clark said. "They had a long night and a short morning before the match."
Despite these bumps in the road, several Quakers turned in impressive performances.
Senior captain Jacob Himmelrich continued to tear up his opponents in the last team competition of his career, winning matches against both Harvard and Dartmouth. Freshman Nick Malinowski also played well in his first Team Championships despite being shut out by Harvard and Western Ontario.
But this weekend will mostly help the Red and Blue look toward next season.
With Individual Championships next week, Penn's year isn't officially over, but that didn't stop Lane from outlining the team's goal going into next season.
"That gives us some fuel for next year to make a legitimate push to No. 4," Lane said. "Hopefully ... we'll make a push and really shoot for beating Yale next year."
