In a sport like wrestling, you can go from the brink of winning a match to losing it in a matter of seconds if you don't finish strong.
For Penn, too many wrestlers just couldn't close out their matches on Sunday as the Quakers fell to No. 12 Hofstra 25-11 in Hempstead, N.Y. The Red and Blue lost two of the ten bouts by not finishing takedowns.
Overall, the Quakers (5-4) won only three: junior Cesar Grajales at 149 pounds, and seniors Zack Shanaman at 165 and Lior Zamir at 184.
Both senior Jeff Zannetti and freshman Bryan Ortenzio had chances to beat top-six ranked wrestlers, yet fell just short.
"Bryan Ortenzio wrestled as tough as he can," Penn coach Zeke Jones said. "If he gets another takedown he wins against a top-six guy. Jeff Zanetti had [his opponent] beat but couldn't finish. Those efforts were great on the losing side."
Without strong finishes, both of these matches ended in favor of the Pride. Against Ortenzio, 133-pound No. 6 Lou Ruggirello won 3-2, and against Zannetti No. 5 174-pound Alton Lucas won 5-3.
The match was closer than the total score indicates.
"As a whole, I guess it would be small things that made the difference," Grajales said.
"We got them tired and there were a couple of small positions where we didn't take them down. We could've beat them on another day, although the score doesn't show that."
The match started off poorly for the Quakers, as their top wrestler, previously 17-1 sophomore Rollie Peterkin, lost a tough 8-2 bout to David Tomasette, a wrestler he'd already beaten twice this season.
"[Peterkin] never got his motor running," Jones said. "He didn't show up with his best game today. Now he must go back to the drawing board. But [Tomasette] is a senior and three-time national qualifier, so he certainly knows how to win."
The Peterkin-Tomasette 125-pound bout was the only one between two ranked wrestlers, as Peterkin and Tomasette came in ranked No. 7 and No. 13, respectively.
But since Peterkin lost, the biggest Quakers' win came from Grajales.
The Brandon, Fla. native owned freshman Jeff Rotella from the start, taking him down right after the opening whistle.
In the end, Grajales pulled out with an easy 24-8 technical fall.
"I figured I needed to step up for my team," Grajales, a tri-captain, said.
"I tried to get as many points as possible for my team. I guess you can say I was happy with the win."
This match against the Pride was much more competitive than last year's, which the Quakers lost 31-3 in the Palestra.
"Last couple of years they've beaten us pretty badly, but this year it was closer," Grajales said.
"It was certainly better than last year. We still we got beat and didn't come up with a win. But it was a little bit better."
And considering the Pride (11-6) are ranked so high, the loss is not a huge setback for the Quakers.
"There were some good things there to work on," Grajales said.
"It show's that we're making progress, but there's a little more to go."
For Penn, that "little more" cost them big time on Sunday.
