W. Squash Season Preview | Squash 'sisters' pushing two decades

Christina Matthias and Brittany Hebden have only gotten closer as the years have gone by - literally.

From growing up a block apart in Philadelphia to attending Penn Charter School together for 12 years to sharing an off-campus house with seven other people, the two Penn squash players are "almost like sisters."

"We've done everything together for so long," Matthias said. "Anything that I could possibly say she could understand a reference to, because she's been there."

Hebden added: "Even our families are close. We know everything about each other. I can't even pinpoint anything specifically, because we're just always fooling around."

In fact, Matthias introduced Hebden to squash. Matthias started playing in second grade at the Philadelphia Racquet Club, and Hebden followed her there two years later.

They played together there until middle school, when they both switched to separate clubs. But they remained teammates, and, ultimately, co-captains at Penn Charter, finishing second at the High School Nationals and tying for first in the Inter-Ac League.

When making a decision about college, though, Matthias and Hebden chose to "not talk about it."

"We wanted to make [the decision] independent of each other," said Matthias. "People would say 'Oh you shouldn't go to school together, you've been together forever.'"

Needless to say, they didn't heed the advice.

But their arrival at Penn brought a new facet to their relationship: competition. Quakers coach Jack Wyant has weekly "challenge matches," which pit teammates against each other to determine the weekend ladder. After years of not facing each other - they were in different club age groups - they were put to the test.

"It's definitely difficult to play her," Matthias said. "It's loaded, but in reality it's competition. You have to look at it as what's best for the team."

"You never want to play someone that's almost like family," Hebden said. "It's a little different, but you have to forget about it when you're on court. I'm a little more nervous when I play her, but it's a good nervous."

And while they've been through plenty together, their favorite memory is quite recent - beating Princeton last year to win the Ivy League title.

"It was best squash moment of my whole life," Matthias said. "It was really awesome that we got to share that moment and share it with the rest of our team. It's like [Brittany and I] did the full circle."