It's only two weeks into the season, but the men's and women's squash teams already face the first of the perennially elite squash teams.
Both the No. 6 men's and No. 4 women's teams head to New Haven, Conn. tomorrow to meet the Elis, whose men's and women's teams are ranked fourth and second, respectively. The following day, they will head to Providence to face Brown, featuring the No. 11 men's and No. 8 women's teams.
Last season, the men nearly pulled off an upset against the Elis, tying them 4-4 through the first eight flights before then-sophomore Spencer Kurn fell in the No. 4 match in five games.
"Last year, we had a surprising result in that we pushed them right to the brink," men's coach Craig Thorpe-Clark said. "This year we're confident; we feel we're stronger, deeper and better, and we've been practicing with the expectation of winning, not [just] giving them a good game."
The women did not have the same success, losing 7-2, their second-largest deficit of the entire season.
Last year's results aside, the Quakers are getting ready for their first road match and to upset their higher-ranked foes. While the coaches may attempt to retain a sense of normalcy, the atmosphere at the team's facilities at Ringe Courts is full of excitement and anticipation.
"We try to prepare just like we prepare for any match," women's coach Jack Wyant said, although he also acknowledged that "there's a heightened sense of anticipation for the match just because everyone's excited for the opportunity to play against a team that has been so successful."
That may be an understatement; the Yale women's team is the three-time defending national postseason champion. The Elis return two first-team All-American selections in senior Catherine McLeod and junior Miranda Ranieri.
Although the men's team lost Julian Illingworth, the top-ranked squash player nationally, it returns a great deal of talent, including captain Nick Chirls.
The Red and Blue boasts a great deal of talent itself. The men's team is captained by senior Gilly Lane and junior Lee Rosen, both ranked among the top collegiate squash players in the nation.
The women are captained by seniors Paula Pearson and Radhika Ahluwalia, but it is a pair of freshmen who have been most impressive this season.
Kristen Lange and Sydney Scott won their flights at Nos. 1 and 2 against Cornell, and both made it into the final four at last week's Constable Invitational, with Lange taking second place in the tournament.
The captains know from experience that they need to have everyone play her best against a talented team like Yale.
"Individually, we're going to go out and play our best at each position because we can win at each position," Ahluwalia said. "We just have to make sure that we're on top of our games."
On Sunday, when all the excitement has died down, Brown's teams will be looking to avenge the sound defeats they encountered last year at Ringe Courts.
The Quakers won both the men's and women's matches, 9-0, and, while the men lost a game in just one flight, the women did not lose any.
