This year’s team of the year is undoubtedly men’s squash.
Despite being a more obscure sport, squash has been able to garner significant school spirit as it rose to the top this season and dominated across the board. In the 2022-23 season, the men’s squash team fell short of expectations, leaving a chance at redemption in the hands of the 2023-24 team.
This team consisted of a group of standout players, including senior Nick Spizzirri, junior Nathan Kueh, junior Roger Baddour, sophomore Omar Hafez, and freshman Salman Khalil, who provided hope for Penn men’s squash fans that this season would not be a repeat of the last. The team collected win after win and successfully secured a share of the Ivy League title in a notable win against Yale. Here Khalil and Spizzirri led the team with standout straight-set victories.
The team didn’t stop there. In the Potter Cup, Penn successfully executed a revenge tour, defeating Princeton and Trinity, each of which had defeated the Quakers during the regular season and the latter of which had beaten Penn in the 2023 Potter Cup. The victory that followed brought Penn its first-ever collegiate squash national team championship. This team came into the season prepared to repudiate the shortcoming of the season prior, and they did so with determination and pride.
“It felt like we had built up those scars and calluses,” coach Gilly Lane said. “You learn more from losing, and we have lost in big moments. There was something about this weekend where the guys just said there was no chance [that] we were losing. And they did it.”
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