M. Squash bruised but not battered

After getting knocked down by a better team, it's good to have an inferior one to bounce back against.

That was how the men's squash team felt, as it rebounded from an 8-1 thrashing at the hands of No. 3 Yale to dominate No. 14 Brown by the same score.

"It's refreshing to be able to go from a bad performance to a pretty good performance," junior Mark Froot said. "You get to show your dominance over a different team. What happened to us, we did to somebody else, which is nice to have happen to get our confidence back up and show us that we can compete."

Though Yale (1-0, 1-0 Ivy) is consistently touted as one of squash's elite programs, the No. 7 Quakers (2-2, 1-2) arrived in New Haven, Conn. with high spirits, hoping to upset the Bulldogs as they did two years ago. But Yale, playing in its first match of the season, took the first eight flights.

Only Froot, playing at the top of the ladder, could help the Red and Blue maintain respectability. No. 39 Froot - ranked below six Bulldogs - took down No. 17 Aaron Fuchs, 3-0.

"I came in there pretty pumped up, pretty excited," he said. "I didn't want us to get shut out, didn't want us all to lose 9-0, so that was a lot of motivation."

Despite the success of Froot and others near the top of the ladder, the Quakers fell hard due to tough losses at the bottom. The No. 5-9 players especially struggled, with none winning a game.

"Although they're not that much more talented than us it's pretty obvious that they've been working a lot harder than us and that we need to step it up in that sense," Froot said. "It was a little embarrassing to be out there on Saturday."

But the Quakers were able to pick up their first Ivy win the next day at Brown (0-3, 0-3). Though three Penn players won in five games, only Andrew Zimmerman at No. 5 fell to his opponent.

"Brown was not quite as strong as Yale and that put us in the driver's seat a little bit," coach Craig Thorpe-Clark said. "They're not quite as deep and we were able to get in and the boys were wanting to play well and be the assertive player and get control. And for the most part, we did it."

Now the Quakers enter a five-week break, so they will have plenty of time to gear up for the crucial second half of the season. While the loss to Yale may have been expected, the season-opening loss to Cornell is one that Froot says the team will have to "make up for" by beating a strong team like Harvard or Rochester.

For now, the squad will focus on maintaining their skills and fitness over the layoff.

"We still need to concentrate on basics," Thorpe-Clark said. "We need to work hard and get some work in over the break so we can come back fresh and eager to play well the second half of the season."

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