W. Squash puts streak at risk today against Ephs

The sixth ranked Penn women's squash team has proved itself a force to be reckoned with, going three straight matches without surrendering a set. Tomorrow, the Quakers (7-2, 2-1 Ivy) will look to continue their three-game winning streak when they take on Williams at home at 5 p.m. The Quakers haven't lost a match since No. 1 Trinity beat them, 7-2, on Jan. 12. Penn's Runa Reta claimed the only true victory on the day against Trinity for the Red and Blue, knocking off No.1 nationally-ranked Amina Helal. Tyler Pearce, a Daily Pennsylvanian writer, won by default when her opponent was sidelined in the middle of the match due to injury. Williams fared only slightly worse than the Quakers in its match against Trinity, losing to the Bantams in a 9-0 decision on Dec. 2. Yale was similarly dominant against both teams. However, the Quakers managed to come away with two individual wins, while Williams recorded none. Williams is currently ranked No. 8, only two spots below the Quakers. Both Penn and the Purple Ephs shut out Cornell earlier in the season, and both teams easily beat Bowdoin -- the Quakers by a score of 9-0 and Williams with a final tally of 8-1. "They've got a pretty good team, so they'll be pretty solid," Penn coach Jim Martel said. "Their top three are pretty decent players, but I think that if our top three play as well as they can, we should be OK -- although we're certainly not going to take them lightly." Most of the action tomorrow is not likely to occur at the top of the ladder, however. Penn co-captain and No. 1 Reta remains unbeaten this season, having taken on top players such as Trinity's Helal. Reta soundly defeated Helal, 3-1, winning her match 9-6, 7-9, 9-4, 9-5, while Williams' No. 1, senior Adrienne Ellman lost three straight sets to Helal. Ellman also suffered from a back injury early in the season that forced her to miss time. "I think she's going to use this match as a tune up," Martel said of Reta. "[Ellman] is a decent player. [Reta] will have to play well to beat her. It will be a good match in preparation for the Constable Tournament, where she'll probably play the top four players in collegiate squash." The rest of the squad will look to follow Reta's lead and capitalize on the momentum of the past weeks' successes against Franklin and Marshall, George Washington and Bowdoin. "We basically want to work on improving our strategy and work on patterns of shot selections during matches," Martel said. "We certainly want to work on our basic court movement and court discipline."

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