W. Squash ready to take on Harvard and Dartmouth

The Penn women's squash team returns to the Ringe Squash Courts this weekend to take on Harvard and Dartmouth in what promises to be one of its most challenging weekend matchups of the season. Harvard's talented squad, currently ranked No. 2 in the country, is led by junior All-American Louisa Hall. Hall is ranked No. 3 individually and has lost only one match this year, to defending national champion Amina Helal of Trinity. Harvard (5-1 overall, 3-0 Ivy League) boasts another returning first-team All-American in sophomore Lindsey Wilkins, playing in the No. 2 spot behind Hall. Wilkins went undefeated last year at No. 3 for the Crimson. Though the Quakers (9-2, 3-1 Ivy) were handily defeated by Harvard last season, Penn sophomore Linda McNair is confident in her team's ability to improve on that performance. "Last year, Harvard beat us 9-0, but this season we're a lot stronger," McNair said. "This will be one of the toughest matches we have, but we're confident that we can do very well." No. 6 Penn is currently riding a five match win streak, coming off of an upset victory over No. 4 Princeton last Wednesday. Princeton was the first of Penn's three major Ivy League matchups in the second half of the season, and the win over the Tigers gives the Quakers momentum going into the remaining two matches against Harvard and Dartmouth. Playing in the No. 1 spot for Penn this weekend will be senior Runa Reta, ranked No. 4 in the nation. Like Harvard's Hall, whom she will challenge on Saturday, Reta's only loss of this season was to No. 1 Amina Helal of Trinity. This defeat came in the finals of the prestigious Constable Invitational held at Princeton. However, Reta defeated Helal in Penn's match against the Bantoms. Reta will be backed up by a strong squad including junior Dafna Wegner, who placed fifth in the Constable Invitational and McNair at the No. 3 position. While Harvard is ranked higher than Penn's other opponent this weekend -- Dartmouth -- the match against the Big Green on Sunday should prove to be no less challenging for the Quakers. Dartmouth, who last year defeated Penn, 6-3, is led by senior Charlotte Haldeman and freshman Julia Drury, who was No. 6 in last year's U.S. Junior rankings. This year Dartmouth is 10-3 overall and 2-2 in the Ivy League, dropping matches to Harvard and No. 3 Yale. The Big Green, who recently defeated Ivy rival Cornell, 8-1, will travel to Princeton on Saturday before arriving in Philadelphia to challenge the Quakers at the Ringe Squash Courts. The Penn team comes into this weekend's matches well-prepared and confident, looking to reverse the outcome of last year's competitions with their Ivy League rivals. As McNair said, "We don't want to let last season's results determine how we play this year. We know we can compete with these teams." Victories over Harvard and Dartmouth would set the Quakers up to take one of the top spots in the Ivy League.

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