One week following a thrilling 5-4 victory over No. 6 Dartmouth, the Penn women's squash team was not able to carry any of that momentum into its match with Trinity.
The No. 3 Bantams routed the No. 5 Quakers 9-0 Saturday in Hartford, Conn.
Still, Penn coach Jack Wyant thought that his team played much better than the score suggests.
The match "didn't go great, but when one team has an advantage -- even a slight advantage -- at every position, that can lead to a decisive result," Wyant said.
Still, the numbers are what count, and the numbers show that Trinity dominated.
Only three of the nine matches went past three games. Freshman Tara Chawla played the most competitive match, but lost 3-2 to Anna Detter.
Freshmen Alisha Turner and Emily Goodwin also got one game apiece off of their opponents.
Last year Penn fell to Trinity 8-1 at the Ringe Courts; it did not help that the match was on the road this season.
Trinity's courts often cause problems for the visiting team.
"They have the home court advantage because they have [three-walled] glass courts which can be difficult to play on," junior co-captain Radhika Ahluwalia said.
Penn now must prepare for the Howe Cup, a postseason tournament that begins Friday at Harvard.
The Quakers will likely face Princeton in the opening round, a team they lost to 6-3 at home three weeks ago.
"The fact that we lost [Saturday], we're hoping to prove ourselves at the Howe Cup." Ahluwalia said. "We did play well even though we all lost so we do have a little bit of confidence going in."
Penn has improved a great deal since last season, but it has not been able to get past fifth in the rankings.
A win next weekend would be a big step toward this goal.
"We keep knocking at the door," Wyant said. "One of these days we're going to break through."
