The real challenge was getting there. When both Penn teams travel to nationals this weekend, they do so knowing that the hardest parts of the season are all things of the past.

As Drake so eloquently said, “Started from the bottom, now we here.” For Max Reed, that story is all too true. The freshman from Lebanon, N.H., has taken a unique and — at times — bumpy path in his short career, but certainly is back on top.

Looking at the ranking of the men’s and women’s college squash tells two very different stories.

Runa Reta. Katie Patrick. Lissa Hunsicker. Come Sunday, senior co-captain Yan Xin Tan hopes to add her name to the list above as just the fourth Richey award winner in school history..

That seismic activity you’ve been feeling recently has been Penn squash leaving opponents shaking in their boots after the team's wins. In a way you could thank coach Jack Wyant’s squad for the outbreak of parity that has left the College Squash Association rankings in tatters week after week.

With the calendar barreling towards the College Squash Association Nationals, Penn Squash’s two squads find themselves heading in opposite directions.

After a busy season filled with plenty of ups and even a few downs, the Penn squash teams will end their regular season schedules with red and blue opponents of their own. On Friday, both second-ranked squads will have their final home match of the season against Columbia at the Ringe Squash Courts.

Cliched or not, practice makes perfect. Just ask Marie Stephan. From the start of the 2014-2015 season, the sophomore has won 25 regular season matches without dropping a single one.

Another one. This weekend Penn squash will have to fend off another top-five opponent eager to put a dent in their championship aspirations along with a team willing to bare it all in order to pull off a monumental upset.

The podcast renaissance has finally hit Penn Athletics, just maybe not in the place you would expect.

You win some and you lose some, but sometimes you just win them all. Last Saturday, for only the second time in school history, both the men and women’s sides for Penn squash topped Princeton in the same season. The wins against Princeton are just the most recent pieces of evidence for why this season is one of — if not the — the Quakers’ best. Historically, Penn-Princeton matchups have typically not gone in favor of the Red and Blue. Corey Henry contributed reporting.

Coming off a gripping 5-4 comeback victory at Trinity last Saturday, the Penn women (7-1, 1-1 Ivy) will have to defend their No. 2 ranking in the faces of the third-ranked Tigers (5-1, 1-1) Saturday afternoon.

In most college sports, you see scores of amateurs competing to be a part of a select few good enough to compete professionally after graduation.

While the blizzard raged on, Penn women’s squash found its fire on Saturday.

“Rise and shine” has been a pretty good way to describe Penn's season so far.  This weekend, against top-program Trinity, the Quakers will have the opportunity to do that once again.

For a meeting between two of the top five women’s sides in the country, the No. 2 Penn and No. 5 Stanford matchup seemed to carry little of the tension that one would expect of such high ranked goliaths.

All great things must come to an end. Penn Squash knows that all too well after this weekend.