Two rookies playing like vets

John Dudzik has enjoyed a stellar freshman campaign, but he has one more bridge to cross before he can shake the dreaded “frosh” status.

Dudzik and freshman teammate Daniel Judd will likely fill the No. 7 and 8 spots competing in Division B at this weekend’s College Squash Association men’s team championships.

“Nobody wants to be a freshman very long,” Dudzik said.

But although they may still find themselves at the bottom of the ladder in terms of both playing position and experience, Judd and Dudzik have emphatically made the most of their freshman campaigns.

The two have provided crucial dependability towards the bottom of the ladder for much of the season — though they took much different paths into the lineup.

Success came early for Dudzik, who impressively won five of his first seven matches on the college level and emerged as one of the bright spots on a team who struggled through its first few competitions.

“In Ivy scrimmages [in November], I was definitely nervous to say the least,” Dudzik said. “I knew I wasn’t playing to the best of my ability. So my five-game win against Cornell kind of reminded me why I was here and made me believe in myself.”

While Dudzik was decisively establishing himself, Judd was simply trying to earn a spot in the ladder after being relegated to exhibition matches that didn’t factor into match scoring.

“It didn’t come easy,” Judd said. “I’ve just been working as hard as I can just like everyone else on the team. I’ve been videotaping every one of my matches and watching them on YouTube.”

Coach Jack Wyant finally gave Judd his chance at the nine spot in an even matchup with Williams roughly halfway through the season. Judd made it worth the wait, winning decisively in three sets and helping secure a 5-4 victory for the Red and Blue.

Since then, Judd moved up to the eight spot in the lineup for the next match against Trinity and again up to the seven spot against Princeton. He has justified his rapid ascent up the ladder, becoming one of only two Quakers to win individually in the final two regular season matches of against higher-ranked opponents Dartmouth and Rochester.

But the driving forces behind the two freshmen’s success extend beyond West Philadelphia. For Judd, they extend over 5,000 miles away, in fact.

Judd played on the silver medal-winning boys’ team at the 2009 Junior Maccabiah Games, an international Jewish athletic event similar to the Olympics.

“It was really cool to play with people all over the world,” Judd said. “Some of the people could barely speak English but you could bond with them over playing squash.”

Dudzik’s past squash experiences, on the other hand, made him feel a bit more at home upon becoming a Penn men’s squash player. He went to the Brunswick School in Greenwich, Conn., the same high school Penn men’s squash seniors James Clark and Will Browne attended.

“In high school, they were seniors when I was a freshman, just like now,” Dudzik explained. “That one year was a really crucial component to my development as a player as well as a human being in general.”

But even with early success, they are constantly reminded of the long road ahead.

“It’s still their job to work really hard and keep on improving,” assistant coach Gilly Lane said.

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