After a gutsy come-from-behind win against Princeton last Wednesday, the women's squash team showed no sign of a letdown in a doubleheader against a pair of upstart squash programs on Saturday.
In its first year as a varsity program, George Washington was doomed from the start. And Penn decisively routed it, 9-0. Even with Penn's top three players sitting, no match went beyond three games.
After the George Washington match, the Quakers geared up for a battle with No. 6 Stanford, a team in just its second year as a varsity program.
The Cardinal are talented, with four players in the individual top 60. They also have the nation's No. 12 player, Lily Lorentzen.
But they did not challenge the Quakers on Saturday, who were just too much.
No. 8 Emily Goodwin, No. 4 Tara Chawla and No. 2 Alisha Turner all secured early 3-0 wins. No. 6 Christina Matthias won her first two games with ease, losing just one point. The third game was much tougher, proving to be one of the only contested games of the afternoon.Matthias still prevailed, 10-8, for another sweep victory.
Indeed, not even Stanford's best players could hang with the Quakers on Saturday. Every Penn player won in three straight games.
"Stanford is pretty good at the top," coach Jack Wyant said. "If we were to have a letdown, that's where you would have seen it."
There was no letdown. With the outcome of the dual match already decided, Kristen Lange stepped onto the court for her second collegiate match against Lorentzen, a former rival from the junior circuit.
The two had faced off during last season's individual quarterfinals, where Lange prevailed 3-0. This time, Lange got stronger as the match went on in a dominating 9-7, 9-2, 9-1 win that completed the 9-0 sweep.
Lorentzen, "the top junior without a doubt" according to Lange, seemed frustrated and a bit off her mark for much of the match.
"It looks better on paper when your team wins 9-0," Lange said, "and it adds to my confidence to beat her."
Wyant was obviously pleased with his team's performance.
"We've got a bit of momentum," he said, crediting the team's conditioning for the ability of the players to stay fresh both mentally and physically.
"We designed the season around peaking," he said.
"In the fall, we were doing more lifting and training outdoors, whereas now we rely on the matches to maintain our fitness."
With only two matches left - at Harvard and Dartmouth - before the national championship tournament, the Howe Cup, the team finds itself pursuing perfection.
"It's an outcome rather than a goal," Wyant said.
"Harvard is a decorated program . and by no means are we going to take them lightly."
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