Fresh off a 6-3 victory over Navy Wednesday night, the Penn men’s squash team (3-3, 1-2 Ivy) will continue its road schedule Saturday when it travels to western Massachusetts, to take on Williams and Amherst at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m., respectively.
“There’s a lot we can improve on from our performance [Wednesday] night,” coach Craig Thorpe-Clark said. “Even though we handled the game fairly well, we can be better.”
The Quakers have opened the new year with a win for the tenth consecutive season and hope to sustain that momentum heading into their final six games of the regular season.
“Before [Wednesday night] we hadn’t actually played a game since early December,” Thorpe-Clark added. “Though we had been practicing hard for about a week, it was good to get back to competitive play again.”
Williams will enter Saturday with an 8-2 record and is currently the 10th-ranked team in the nation. The Ephs are on a four-game winning streak, and have not lost since Dec. 12 against the immovable No. 1 Trinity.
Amherst is 3-1 on its season, having just lost its first game of the year Wednesday night at Middlebury.
In the recent past, Penn has been able to defeat Williams and Amherst consistently, usually with little difficulty.
The Quakers have played a doubleheader with the two teams every year dating back to the 2005-06 season and have not lost to either team during that run. In fact, Penn has defeated the two teams 73-8 in the nine games played against them in that time.
Still, the Quakers’ typically face trouble on the road.
Over the past two regular seasons, the Red and Blue have been 7-3 at home, and 3-6 away. And with five of the team’s remaining six games away from home, road play will be especially important as Penn prepares for championship season.
Thorpe-Clark realizes the challenge the Quakers will face against two teams that are off to winning seasons.
“We’ve got to be ready for the battle that lies ahead of us, come Saturday night,” the coach said.
“As long as we execute out there, I believe we have the determination and the skills necessary to win,” he added. “We just have to put ourselves in a position to dominate.”
