
Consecutive 9-0 losses to the nation's top two teams were major setbacks in the Quakers' quest to be considered among the nation's elite.
But now, No. 4 men's squash can say it's in the ballpark.
Penn split the weekend's matches at Ringe Courts, losing to No. 2 Harvard Saturday 3-6 but defeating No. 7 Dartmouth 9-0 yesterday.
The result against the Crimson (5-1, 4-0 Ivy) may be marked down as a loss in the record book, but the Quakers (8-3, 4-2 Ivy) showed they are capable of playing with the nation's top teams, which they didn't do against Princeton and Trinity.
"I think [Saturday's] loss was more positive than negative," senior Graham Bassett said. "We showed that we're just as good as any other team in the league."
Bassett was among the three Quakers to win their matches as he picked up a three-game win over previously unbeaten Garnett Booth at the No. 6 spot.
Bassett was not the only Penn senior to notch an upset. The nation's top-ranked player, Siddharth Suchde, retired in the second game of his match, giving the win to Penn's Gilly Lane.
The Quakers took a promising 2-1 lead, but Harvard stormed back to win all but one of the remaining matchups. The only other Penn player to win was freshman Christopher Thompson at the No. 9 spot.
"We came out very focused and very strong, but we just weren't able to hold the lead," Lane said. "I think the effort, though, was amazing by everyone; we just lost to a better team."
Despite the loss, coach Craig Thorpe-Clark was impressed with his team's play.
"We played well [Saturday] and didn't quite pull it off, but we felt good about ourselves," Thorpe-Clark said. "We really moved up a notch from our previous couple of performances against high-ranked teams."
If there was any frustration hanging over from the Harvard loss, though, Penn took it out on Dartmouth (11-7, 2-4 Ivy) yesterday in a dominating performance. The Quakers won 3-0 in seven of nine matches.
The win should give the Quakers some momentum as they now head into preparation for Ivy League Team Championships.
"When you're building off a peak, you're already a little higher, so hopefully we can go up another level or two to compete well there," Thorpe-Clark said.
The weekend was also a time for the team's seniors to look back on their careers, as yesterday was their last team dual match together.
"I was a little nostalgic [yesterday] morning waking up knowing it would be the last time I would go through this routine," Bassett said. "It's just a real honor to finish off with all these guys and beat a good school like Dartmouth."
But the real chance for the seniors to leave their mark will come two weeks from now at the League Championships.
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