In his final match at the Ringe Squash Courts, Jacob Himmelrich was just being Jacob Himmelrich.
The senior captain took the lone win in the No. 7 flight in No. 5 Penn's 8-1 loss to No. 4 Princeton last night in typical fashion -- by scrapping it out and refusing to quit.
"By no means is he a classic or pretty squash player," coach Craig Thorpe-Clarke said. "For him to pull it out was a really fitting end.
On paper, this match may seem to be the lone bright spot. But the Quakers know that they were beaten by a superior team.
"They're the real deal," Himmelrich said, referring to Princeton. "They're as tough as [No. 1] Trinity, I'd say."
Especially with Yasser El Halaby -- college squash's premier player -- out with a foot injury, and Princeton forced to put each of its players at a higher flight, this is not hard to believe.
The Tigers recorded shutouts in five out of the top nine flights and never gave Penn a chance. The home team won only two games in the first seven matches.
Even though Thorpe-Clarke was "pleased" with the team's performance, the Red and Blue may not have exactly been themselves.
"As a team we were really distracted," said junior Graham Bassett, who lost 3-1 from the No. 6 flight.
"This time of year around the league there are a lot of things happening," he added. "We were thinking about matches other than Princeton, and that hurt us."
But Thorpe-Clark has a simpler answer.
"They just had a bit more firepower," he said. "They outgunned us."
This has been a recurring theme in the Penn-Princeton men's squash rivalry over the years.
With last night's victory, the Tigers have taken 32 straight from the Quakers, and with freshmen occupying the top three flights, they have a good chance to continue their dominance.
"It's hard for it to be a pretty big rivalry when we haven't beaten them in a while," Himmelrich said.
However, this string of supremacy only fuels Penn's desire, even in a match as lopsided as last night's.
"The guys care enough to turn up and give their best effort," Thorpe-Clark said. "No one capitulated to the pressure."
Even after playing Trinity and Princeton in a span of twelve days, the pressure will not be off of the Quakers in the next couple of weeks.
After playing No. 2 Harvard and No. 8 Dartmouth on the road this weekend, Penn heads to the Team Championships in -- fittingly enough -- Princeton, N.J.
Even on the night of his final home match, Himmelrich refused to allow the spotlight to be shone solely on himself.
Instead, he turned his attention to the team's most immediate task.
"It was a good push into this weekend," he said.
The Quakers hope to use this momentum to finish what their captain started.
