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That’s why, after losing to perennial powerhouse Trinity, Penn men’s and women’s squash are confident going into Wednesday’s match against Princeton that they can both bring home crucial Ivy League wins.
As Penn women’s squash (5-3, 1-1 Ivy) enters its main extended stretch of conference play this season of the season against Princeton (9-0, 2-0), the Red and Blue’s lineup will be bolstered by the recent return of senior No. 2 Melissa Alves, who went undefeated last season and is back for more.
Since joining the team as a walk-on, the freshman has accumulated a seven-game winning streak. She has now risen all the way up to No. 6 on the squash ladder.
As the classic song goes, “anything you can do I can do better.” For Penn women's squash’s Reeham Sedky, this very well could be the case. The two-time defending CSA finalist has taken her game up yet another level, now training with Penn's men’s team.
On the men’s side, the Quakers (8-2, 2-0 Ivy) left Connecticut without an individual win, falling 9-0 to the undefeated No. 1 Bantams (7-0, 2-0 NESCAC). For the women’s squad, the results were not much more glamorous, as the final tally came in 7-2 for No. 2 Trinity.
Of course, braving the sub-zero temperatures and seemingly endless bus rides was not purely for fun. This “vacation” was actually a NCAA-sanctioned international tour, which is allowed once every four years. And, with this being the lucky year, coach Jack Wyant took his squad north for the training retreat.
In this week's edition of Is Stat So?, we look at several individual and team records that were broken this weekend, as well as a few key numbers that allowed men's squash and women's basketball to emerge victorious.
Just a week after freshman Andrew Douglas’ comeback win to beat No. 6 Rochester, Penn needed another ninth game win to beat Yale 5-4. Meanwhile, Penn’s women fell to the Elis by the same score. Against Brown on Sunday, both teams eliminated any chance for a dramatic ending by sweeping the Bears 9-0.
With various teams engaging in some instant classic battles, the Quakers have given fans a wild range of emotions throughout the calendar year, with the lone constant being thorough entertainment across the board.
"I had so much adrenaline, so it didn't really affect me until after the match," Sedky explained seven hours later, with her nose still bleeding. "It did sting in the beginning, but it was fine."
This past weekend, the men's team won both of its matches, defeating No. 17 Virginia, 9-0, on Saturday and No. 14 Navy, 7-2, on Sunday. The women’s team, on the other hand, split its weekend with a pair of tough matches. After starting the weekend off with a win over No. 13 Virginia, 8-1, the Quakers then fell to No. 5 Stanford, 6-3.
With Penn squash, the story lies behind the numbers.
The Penn men’s (2-0) and women’s (2-0) squash programs are going into a road trip in Virginia, fresh off convincing titles at the Inaugural Pennsylvania State Classic from both teams.
This weekend, Penn and Drexel co-hosted the first annual Pennsylvania State Classic Squash tournament. The tournament included four teams: Drexel, Franklin and Marshall, Dickinson and Penn. The tournament was a success for Penn in every sense of the word — the tournament was organized to perfection, and Penn finished in first place for both its men’s and women’s teams.
Enter the Pennsylvania State Classic, a two-day men’s and women’s tournament that features the top squash squads from across the Keystone State. In the tournament's inaugural year, Penn's Ringe Courts will be playing host to Drexel, Franklin & Marshall, and Dickinson this Saturday and Sunday.
This weekend, both Penn men’s and women’s squash finished third in the annual Ivy league squash scrimmages at Yale. It was a stellar result for the men's team, and a finish which may not have been perfect for the women, but still good nonetheless.
Following a remarkable year on the world circuit, Penn junior and women’s squash superstar Reeham Sedky has been recognized as the US Squash Athlete of the Year.
The unusual makeup of rosters after season cancellations presented unordinary opportunities for many Penn athletes, from upperclassmen leading two classes of rookies to players returning for a fifth year.