W. Squash sweeps weekend at Ringe

The Penn women's squash team is on a roll. After winning their match on Wednesday against Franklin and Marshall, 9-0, the Quakers were back in top form, sweeping both Bowdoin and George Washington on Saturday at home. "We were going into the match pretty confident that we would win," senior Runa Reta said. Reta, who played only one match on Saturday, easily defeated Niki Clemet of Bowdoin in straight sets. Junior Dafna Wegner and sophomore Linda McNair -- playing at No. 2 and 3 respectively -- followed Reta's lead and handed each of their opponents a 3-0 loss. The Quakers (7-2, 2-1 Ivy) fared equally well against George Washington, which made its collegiate debut on Saturday. "It went pretty well," Wegner said. "It wasn't a very big challenge, but it was a good match." As usual, the freshmen held their own in competition and recorded 10 wins among them. Freshmen Lorin Riley, Tyler Pearce, who is a writer for the Daily Pennsylvanian, Colleen Gurda, Missy Cosgrave and Lily Evans played in both matches and defeated their Bowdoin and George Washington opponents. "We have a lot of really young girls on the team," junior Katie Fetter said. "They have been working really hard and have impressed us with their level of effort and dedication." This season, the Quakers have relied heavily on the younger players to generate wins at the bottom of the ladder. Additionally, the Red and Blue have returned two of their top players, Reta and Wegner, who were sidelined last season because of injury. "I think there's a significant difference between this year and last," Reta said. "We have a much stronger and much more dedicated team, and it's showing. We're beating teams that were ranked ahead of us and those that we should be beating. We're definitely on the right track right now." In the upcoming weeks, the Quakers will look to use the momentum of their last three victories to carry them through a challenging Ivy League schedule. "This momentum is definitely a positive thing. We have more confidence," Reta said. "The more we win the more confidence we have. "Also just having more matches means that everyone is making less errors. We're touching up on our game and we're definitely not as rusty." Judging by the Quakers' record so far this season as compared to last season, this seems to be the case. The Quakers' record stands at 7-2 whereas last year at this time, their record was 3-9. "This season is much better," Wegner said. "We have been training really hard all year and we have an individual tournament this weekend where we'll have a lot of matches, so it will be good preparation. "We have some really important matches coming up like Harvard and Princeton, which are going to be a bit harder. But I hope that we'll do well."

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