Yasser El Halaby of Princeton is the top-ranked college squash player in the nation and the three-time defending individual champion.
When he's playing, you can pretty much chalk up a point for the Tigers before the match starts.
Luckily for the Quakers, however, they will probably not have to face the injured El Halaby tonight when they take on Princeton at Ringe Courts at 7 p.m., and that might just give them the advantage they need to upset the No. 3 Tigers.
After losing a five-set thriller at No. 1 Trinity a week ago, El Halaby did not play in Princeton's loss to No. 4 Yale. It is likely that be out of action tonight as well.
Nonetheless, beating Princeton will not be an easy task.
"It's obviously going to be tough," junior Ben Ende said. "It's going to take a lot. It's going to require a lot of people to be on top of their game.
"But they're missing their number one [and] they're just coming off of a bad loss, so if we're going to do it anytime over the season, now would be the time, so it's very possible," he added.
If the No. 5 Penn men's squash team wants to finish in the top half of the Ivy League standings for the first time in a decade, it will have to win one of its two remaining matches against higher-ranked teams.
Last season, the Quakers traveled to Princeton, N.J., and fell to the Tigers 6-3. Tonight's match is at home, but that alone does not ensure a victory for the Red and Blue.
Princeton comes to town an even stronger team than last season, having lost only one senior starter.
"They've really reloaded this year," senior co-captain Jacob Himmelrich said. "They brought in three freshmen who are playing between two and four at a very high level."
In fact, with El Halaby out, the top three spots in Princeton's lineup were all occupied by freshmen in the match against Yale, including El Halaby's younger brother, Hesham.
"They're stronger, definitely, than last year, but we think we are too," Himmelrich said. "It definitely helps to play at home. Their courts are quite different from ours, so I think that will give us an advantage."
And the Quakers will need every advantage they can get to have a realistic chance to defeat a team they have lost to every year in the past decade.
If they succeed, they should finally break into the elusive top 4 in the rankings.
"We know the top 4 has been pretty steady the last five years," Himmelrich said. "Obviously it would be a huge deal for us to take down one of [the top-4 teams] and break into that.
"Hopefully, we can pull an upset and give people something to cheer about," he said.
