An illustrious Quaker's career ends

Penn senior Runa Reta may very well be the best collegiate squash player in the nation. Reta rounded out the season flawlessly, remaining undefeated at No. 1 as she defeated Harvard junior All-American Louisa Hall and Dartmouth senior Charlotte Haldeman this weekend. Reta has led the team this season both as a captain and as the Quakers' top player. Among the competitors she has bested this season are two national champions -- Amina Helal of Trinity and Ruchika Kumar of Princeton -- numerous All-Americans and two athletes ranked above her in the College Squash Association's preseason poll. Though the No. 4 Penn women's squash team ended its regular season on a sour note, losing its matches against No. 2 Harvard and No. 5 Dartmouth, for Reta, this weekend was slightly more sweet than sour. "She's got the skill and the drive," said freshman Tyler Pearce, a Daily Pennsylvanian reporter. "She really wants it, and it shows. She doesn't always have to try her hardest to win, but she does anyway. She's trained really hard this year and put in a lot of extra time after practice. She really deserves this." Although the Quakers felt they would get at least one win this weekend, as a team, the Red and Blue were not so fortunate, losing to No. 5 Dartmouth, 5-4. After a five-game winning streak, the Quakers fell to Harvard, 6-3, on Saturday, followed by a disappointing loss to lower-ranked Dartmouth. "We went into the match knowing that it would be tough," Reta said of Harvard. "We were expecting it to be very competitive, and it was. Unfortunately [against Dartmouth] we thought we would be able to win. We thought it would be pretty close, which it was, but not in our favor." The Quakers came out in top form on Saturday and looked as if they might give the favored Crimson a run for their money. Each of Penn's top three players -- Reta, co-captain Dafna Wegner and sophomore Linda McNair -- won their matches. Wegner worked particularly hard for her 3-2 win, duking it out with her opponent over five matches in one hour and 15 minutes. Unfortunately for the Quakers, the rest of the ladder could not follow suit and dropped matches from four through nine. "I don't think the score reflected how we played," Pearce said. "We had a lot of 3-1 losses. We definitely gave them a challenge." But the Dartmouth match was a different story. "It was kind of tough because we went in expecting to win," Pearce said. "We beat Princeton last week, and they had just lost to Princeton, so I think going into the match, we were a little more confident than we should have been. Coming off of that loss, they were really fired up and ready to play." Once again the Quakers' All-American triumvirate was successful in the top three spots while the rest of the team struggled to earn points. The Quakers secured a win at the seventh spot but fell just short of defeating Dartmouth. In the coming weeks, "I think we're going to try to tighten our game," Reta said. "We're going to look at what we did wrong and try to rectify it." In spite of their losses, the Quakers are pleased with their overall performance this season. "We've done so much better this year than last," Pearce said. "It was upsetting that we lost, but we had so many good wins this season that we shouldn't be too hard on ourselves."

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