Needing to win for title shot, W. Squash forgets Howe

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Recovering from "the most disappointing day of squash I've ever had" wasn't easy for senior and co-captain Paula Pearson or her Penn teammates.

And it was a bittersweet weekend for them at the Howe Cup in New Haven. A No. 2 seed in the championship tournament, the Quakers expected nothing less than at least a berth in the final - and a national title was well within their grasp.

But instead it was No. 1 Princeton who left with the Howe Cup. The Quakers leave Yale disappointed after a 6-3 semifinal loss to No. 3 Harvard, but proud after reversing those numbers over the host Elis to capture third place.

"We're definitely focusing on the latter aspect of that," coach Jack Wyant said.

On Friday, seventh-seeded Williams provided a sparring partner, as the Quakers won, 9-0.

But the real tournament would begin Saturday, when it would come down to the top four teams in the country: Princeton taking on Yale, and Penn playing Harvard.

Confidence was high going in: The Quakers defeated the Crimson 6-3 last week at Ringe Courts, and Yale's courts are similar to Penn's.

Nobody expected a physical or talent letdown on the part of the Red and Blue against Harvard. If it was going to lose, Penn would lose in the mental game. According to the team, that's what happened.

Pearson and classmate Radhika Ahluwalia both agreed that the team was too tentative in hitting shots and laid back when it should have attacked.

"We all could have played better," Pearson said. "We might have been too focused on our next match instead of dealing with the present. I had high expectations and I think everyone else did too."

"Mentally, they were probably more prepared than we were," Ahluwalia said. "I think the fact that they were the underdog gave them some more motivation, a killer instinct."

Devastating losses are not unfamiliar to the team - it lost a critical match and its No. 1 ranking to Princeton last month. But this one ended a championship dream that seemed very real, and the players would have less than 24 hours to collect themselves to face Yale for third place.

As they've done before, the senior trio of Ahluwalia, Pearson, and Caitlin Russell took the initiative in leading their team.

"I told them that we could take this two ways," Pearson said. "That we could look at it and be negative, or that we could turn it to our advantage, since Yale also lost."

Ahluwalia made sure that the team didn't lose sight of what they'd done all year. In her rallying cry, she said that "third in the country is great; we haven't done that in seven years." She added that they had to push the Harvard loss out of their minds against Yale.

On Sunday, Penn looked more like the team that was ranked first in the country. It jumped out to a 3-0 lead, and Wyant cautioned that the team had done that before against the Elis and only ended up winning 5-4.

Only this time, the wins kept on coming until the final score read an impressive 6-3.

Even the usually optimistic Wyant admitted that he didn't think the team could bounce back so quickly.

Chalk that recovery up to the team's leadership and camaraderie. Ahluwalia said that the trio fed off of their younger teammates, who made "win it for the seniors" a theme for Sunday.

Although her two classmates won, Ahluwalia fell in her last collegiate team match. Wyant refused to feel sorry about that.

"You know, I can't ever be disappointed with Paula or Radhika," he said. "They've both won tough matches for us and lost big ones as well. But without them and their leadership, we'd never be in this position. I'm incredibly proud."

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