California dreams come true

When the final point of Penn’s third match at the Stanford Round Robin in Palo Alto, Calif., was officially recorded, the undefeated women’s squash team was one step closer to repeating last year’s eight-game streak.

The Quakers’ 9-0 victory over Connecticut College capped off Saturday afternoon’s action, giving the women’s squash team its third shutout of the day following two wins over Stanford and Wesleyan.

“The California trip was successful on all fronts,” coach Jack Wyant said. “The team played very well against Stanford. [Stanford] had an energized crowd behind them but our team was focused and got the job done.”

Stanford had entered Saturday as the sixth-ranked team in the nation and had its largest crowd of the season in attendance, but lost to Penn (7-0, 3-0 Ivy) for the third consecutive time dating back to the 2007-2008 season.

Penn prepared for the triple-header earlier in the week, seizing the chance to compete against two of the oldest squash clubs in the nation. This past Thursday, the Quakers took on the University Club of San Francisco, and on Friday they faced the Olympic Club.

“Having an opportunity to visit the Bay Area and see things like Alcatraz made this a road trip to remember,” added Wyant.

This is the third consecutive season that the Quakers have opened with a win-streak of at least seven games.

The team began last season 8-0 before losing to Princeton last January and started the 2007-08 season 15-0 before losing to Princeton in February of that season.

They’ll try to continue this year’s run on Saturday when they travel to Massachusetts to take on Williams and Amherst at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m., respectively.

Only four regular season games remain after that, to be played against Trinity, Princeton, Harvard and Dartmouth, in that order.

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