M. Squash hopes to be No.9

The Penn men's squash team hopes to be able to boast after this weekend, "we're still No. 9."

The Quakers, currently the No. 9 team in the nation, is the top seed in the B division of the upcoming Intercollegiate Squash Association Team Championships which will held at Yale beginning tomorrow morning.

Since the Red and Blue were not able to break into the top-8, they will compete against the No. 10 through No. 16 teams in the country, with all teams vying for the final national ranking of No. 9.

Though disappointed they were unable to vault into the top-8, the Red and Blue have turned their failure into a goal of improvement.

"If we were to win the Hoehn Trophy it would be a sign of our improvement from last year," third-year coach Craig Thorpe-Clark said.

The Quakers remain confident about their chances to win the Hoehn Trophy.

As the top seed in the B division, Penn has beaten all of the teams they have faced from the B division this year, including Amherst, Denison, Franklin and Marshall and the U.S. Naval Academy.

The other three teams, Bowdoin, Bates and Hobart should not pose much of a problem for the Quakers.

"We're playing a terrible Hobart team in the first round. They are the No. 16 seed," junior co-captain Elan Levy said. "Eventually we'll probably play either Navy or Denison in the championship of the B division."

As a personal goal, Levy will also be trying to join freshman No.1 Richard Repetto, junior No. 2 Sam Miller and senior No. 3 Roberto Kriete who have already earned spots in the top-64 players to compete in the individual championships.

"If I can win all three of my matches in a convincing fashion I should be able to join the other guys at the Individual Championships," Levy said.

Adding to the Quakers confidence will be the return of freshman Andrew Crockett and senior co-captain John Griffin from injury.

This weekend will be the first time in over a month the Quakers have fielded a lineup consisting of their top 10 players.

"It'll be nice going up there [Yale] with a full lineup," Thorpe-Clark said. "The players who filled in for our injured players did a great job, but they didn't quite make it this week."

As has been the story all year, Penn's depth will be the key to their success this weekend.

"Our depth has been our greatest attribute this year, and when people have been called upon to step up they have done a terrific job," Thorpe-Clark said.

Repetto mirrored Thorpe-Clark's thoughts.

"If we perform well at the bottom of the ladder we will walk through the B division," Repetto said.

The Quakers will look to use their difficult regular season schedule, having played all eight teams ranked higher than them nationally, to help them coast through this weekend's competition.

"Bringing home the silveraware would be a great end to the season," Thorpe-Clark said.

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