Although it brought mixed results to the Penn women’s and men’s squash teams, Saturday clearly marked a new beginning for both.
With a roster comprised of 90 percent underclassmen, the women started their season by sweeping Cornell 9-0. And in another beginning, Jack Wyant dropped his first game as men’s squash coach to the Big Red, 5-4.
The women’s victory (1-0, 1-0 Ivy) marked their eighth straight over Cornell (1-1, 0-1 Ivy). With the Red and Blue graduating four seniors from last year’s squad that finished second in the Ivies, three freshmen were asked to step up on Saturday — and they did.
“It feels really good,” freshman Courtney Jones said. “The other freshmen and I have been really working hard. We’re all so close in age, which could mean a lot of depth for the future.”
Meanwhile, coach Wyant believes that on the men’s side, the future is now. The men (0-1, 0-1 Ivy) could not avoid falling to the Big Red (2-0, 1-0 Ivy) for the fourth consecutive year, but after losing to them by a combined score of 17-1 in their previous two meetings, Wyant sees signs of improvement in the men’s narrow loss to perennially powerful Cornell.
“We had a great chance today,” Wyant said. “If we could have played our best, we would have won. We’re going to win one of these games. Until we beat one of the teams in front of us, we’re going to continue working toward that goal.”
The women’s and men’s next tests will come December 1, when they travel to Lancaster to take on Franklin & Marshall. Until then, senior co-captain James Clark said the men will work to turn their program’s new beginning into a happy ending.
“We came up short, and the next time we play an opponent like Cornell, we will work to get the job done and make sure this doesn’t happen again,” he said.
