Feeling (Red and) Blue in New Haven

NEW HAVEN, Conn., Feb. 17 -- It's been quite a ride for the women's squash team this season, and that's why it's so unfortunate that all it has left to play for tomorrow at the Howe Cup at Yale is a third-place spot.

Today Harvard upset the second-seeded Quakers 6-3 in dual-match action. So while the Crimson will play Princeton for the National Championship, Penn will take on the Elis (who lost to Princeton) in the consolation match.

To be honest, the Quakers looked inconsistent. I didn't get a chance to watch every minute of every match (I only have one set of eyes), but I did see some spectacular shots followed by mental mistakes. It seemed like they were always playing catchup on the scoreboard, trading points from a deficit. For the third time in the last several dual-matches, No. 1 Kristen Lange and No. 3 Paula Pearson lost their matches for Penn.

But there is a lot of good to take away here.

Starting four freshmen (with Kristen Lange and Sydney Scott as the top two players) and having last year's No. 2 player (Alisha Turner) fall to the seventh spot, nobody quite knew what to expect from this team. Everyone knew how talented they were, but with such a lack of collegiate experience, the team's mental toughness and maturity was questioned. And while it may be easy to point at today's result as evidence of that, one can just as easily look at other things: the rise to a No. 1 ranking and regular-season wins over Yale, Harvard and Trinity. Either way you slice it, freshmen Lange, Scott, Britt Hebden, and Christina Matthias will surely be back and even better next year. Though seniors Paula Pearson, Radhika Ahluwalia, and Caitlin Russell will not win a National Championship in their careers, their guidance will certainly be key should this crop of freshmen produce one.