Revenge, experience on the minds of W. Squash

For senior Alex Black, it's about the experience. For junior Runa Reta, it's about a championship.

The Penn women's squash team travels to Princeton, N.J., to compete in the Constable Invitational this weekend, and the Quakers' captains have very different expectations and goals in mind.

Black sees the three-day, individual tournament as an opportunity for a team with six freshmen and no seniors other than herself to get a bunch of experience.

Reta, meanwhile, sees it as an opportunity for an ascension in the national rankings and an opportunity for revenge.

The Penn junior -- ranked second in the preseason Women's Intercollegiate Squash Association rankings, but unranked this month because of insufficient data due to her semester abroad -- is seeded second, and she could very well play the top-ranked college squash player, Trinity sophomore Amina Helal, in the finals on Sunday. Helal beat her, 3-0, on Jan. 12.

"The focus is quite a bit different this weekend," Reta said. "Normally, there's a team mentality, where everybody's working together for team goals. But this weekend, it's more individual."

And what are her individual goals?

"I'm trying to win."

Last year, Reta lost in the Constable Invitational semifinals, and Penn lost in the semifinals of the Howe Cup tournament -- squash's national championship.

Things are not much different for Reta this year -- she's a returning All-American and seems on her way to repeating the honor. But for the rest of the Quakers, it's been a trying season, as Penn, under new coach Jim Martel, is just 3-9.

"It's not frustrating, though," Black said. "It's just a different experience, a building year."

Black and Reta are expected to help along that building, and their different experiences might help them do it.

"It's cool that you have the experience of Alex, who has the length of experience, and Runa, who has experience at the highest level," Penn sophomore Quincy Riley said.

Along with those differences in experiences comes a difference in style.

"Runa is more concerned with the squash," Penn freshman Rohini Gupta said. "Alex is more concerned with the team as a whole, the mental part of it.

"There's that balance, which is good."

And the Quakers have that balance this weekend, too.

There's the opportunity for experience, just like Black wants -- three-to-six matches per person -- and there's the opportunity for a championship -- the Constable Invitational trophy -- just like Reta wants.

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