The Penn men's squash team was hoping for a fourth-place finish this weekend at the Team Championships in Boston. It'll have to settle for fifth.
After a long bus ride up on Friday and little time left for practice, the Quakers took the courts to face off against Yale in their first-round match.
Within a few hours, they had lost 7-2, and hopes of a top-four finish were dashed.
Coach Craig Thorpe-Clark said the team did not put in its best effort against the Bulldogs, perhaps because they were hoping to play Harvard. However, Yale beat the Crimson two days earlier, setting up the matchup with Penn.
Quakers senior co-captain Ryan Rayfield was quick to take some of the blame for the loss to Yale.
"Going out first, I'm supposed to set the tone," he said. "I came out and played the worst squash I've ever played in the most important match I've ever played."
Earlier in the season, Penn dropped a tight 5-4 decision to the Bulldogs, so it was capable of pulling off an upset. Rayfield believes that had he played better, perhaps Friday's result would have been different.
The pizza dinner the team had that night was considerably easier to digest than the loss that day.
But less than 24 hours later, Penn had to collect itself to play in the consolation bracket against Dartmouth.
"We made sure to get to the courts early and get focused," senior co-captain Lee Rosen said.
There was no shortage of motivation for the Quakers.
The Big Green gave Penn bulletin-board material last week when one of their players, Andrew Boumford, boasted, "Our team is looking to drown the Penn Quakers with the fire of a thousand suns."
Tyler Young added that "a few of [the Quakers] think that they're really badass, but don't really realize that they're playing squash."
While Rayfield said they shared a laugh with their opponents over it, he added that they "wanted to set the record straight" after the poor showing against Yale.
The Red and Blue summarily dispatched Dartmouth 9-0.
"It showed that they're a long way away from being able to beat us," Rayfield said.
That win put Penn in yesterday's consolation final against Western Ontario. Western had beaten the Quakers, 7-2, at the beginning of the season.
The result this time was considerably closer. With the match tied 4-4, Penn's Andrew Zimmerman outlasted his opponent and won it for the Quakers, who earned a fifth-place finish.
Thorpe-Clark called it "a very satisfying trip" despite the hopes of finishing fourth, and was impressed by his team's resiliency over its last two matches.
As for the seniors, they're looking back on their career at Penn with no regrets, despite never pulling off a big upset and cracking the top four to end a year.
"I'm proud of how we played this weekend and I'm proud of the team," Rayfield said. "Already I'm feeling a bit nostalgic about my time here."
