Senior night for the men's squash team will definitely be one they will never forget. But not for good reasons.
The Quakers fell 9-0 to No. 2 Princeton last night, and only one match lasted longer than three games. They are now just 39-6 against the Tigers over the past five seasons.
While the seniors wish they could have spent their last match at home having a little more fun, they viewed this as a chance to improve.
"You need to learn from your losses and take something away from both your wins and your losses," senior co-captain Ryan Rayfield said. "The losses are more beneficial because you have been beaten and you can really reflect."
They were up against a quality opponent. Three of the top four players in the country are on Princeton's nine-man roster, while the other six complement them perfectly.
"They have greater depth and some very good players, so all of my guys were under a lot of pressure," said Coach Craig Thorpe-Clark.
"We could have played better and you can always play better. With good competition, you should be able to raise your game to that level."
The most-watched match of the night came on center court as national No. 1 Mauricio Sanchez for Princeton took on Penn's No. 1, Lee Rosen, ranked 12th in the country.
While Rosen - the other senior co-captain - played well and battled until the very last point, Sanchez proved to be too much, as he won in three games 9-2, 9-5, 9-1.
"He is a really good player," Rosen said.
"I thought I could have done better but you take something out of every match. He's a good player who exposes your weaknesses, so this told me what I had to work on."
The other exciting match came from the No. 8 spot as Penn's Parker Justi took Princeton's Brandon Bascom to the fifth game.
The match went back and forth and was within reach for both players in the final game. Justi's tremendous effort fell just short as Bascom pulled out the victory 7-9, 9-3, 9-1, 9-10, 9-7.
Despite the final score Thorpe-Clarke was pleased that his team fought hard.
"You pick out the positives. I told them that the competitiveness was very good, some guys gave themselves a good chance, and we didn't capitulate to the pressure."
Overall, the Quakers now know what they need to do in order to continue getting better as they look towards the postseason.
But before that, Harvard and Dartmouth stand in their way.
"It's great to play a team who is better than us," Thorpe-Clark said, "because teams like Harvard and Dartmouth are not as good as them. So we will be under less pressure."
