Loss drops M. Squash to .500

The Penn men's squash team did not get the early Christmas gift it was hoping for Saturday at Ringe Courts. Instead, the Quakers (2-2) were handed their second defeat of the season, losing to Amherst (3-0) by a score of 6-3. Led by top American juniors player Dave McNeely, Amherst is a tough team to face, even under the best circumstances. The Red and Blue's loss, however, came under less than ideal circumstances. For one, the players' impending final exams were a distraction. "The difficulty is that squash is such a mentally-founded game" said Quaker captain Andrew Hopkins. "With finals right now, it is hard to keep the necessary concentration." More important to the outcome, however, was the absence of No. 1 Shams Mistry due to a family illness. "Structurally if you lose your No. 1 player it means everyone else has to move up a spot," Quaker coach Jim Masland said. "From the point of view of the ladder, obviously everybody had to play a spot higher than they would have." Even playing without Mistry, the Red and Blue still believed the match against Amherst was well within reach. They were coming off a victory over Brown, had the homecourt advantage and were confident in the strength of their lineup. Even Amherst coach Peter Robson admitted to being apprehensive heading into the match with Penn. "The Quakers have improved a lot since last year. We actually were very worried about this match," said Robson. "They played really well against Brown, and lost to Yale -- but it was a close match. We were not sure we were going to win this match." But when the matches were played, Penn's only wins came from freshmen Roberto Kriete and Ritish Telani and sophomore Will Ruthrauff. "The match did not go as well as it should have gone. We were without Shams, which would have helped out a lot," said junior Chuck Braff. "But still, we should have beat them. We basically lost a match we actually could have, and should have won." Heading into winter break, the Quakers view the loss as an incentive to work harder over the vacation and come back stronger for the second half of the season. "This is a team that is gaining experience, and some of the experiences you have are not always positive in terms of results," said Masland. "But, hopefully there are some things we can take from the match and improve on."

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