No. 7 Virginia Suffers First Loss at No. 5 Penn

PHILADELPHIA. – The No. 7 Virginia women’s squash team (4-1, 2-0 MASC) suffered its first loss of the season, falling 7-2 at No. 5 Penn (4-0) on Saturday (Nov. 18) at the Penn Squash Center in Philadelphia, Pa.

Junior Caroline Pellegrino opened the match with an 11-4, 11-3, 14-12 win at eight, but the Quakers tallied six straight wins to go up 6-1. Sophomore Lina Tammam picked up an 11-8, 11-6, 1-11, 11-9 win at two to make it 6-2 but the Quakers won on the final court to tally a 7-2 victory.

Senior Meagan Best battled at the top position, dropping tough second and third games 19-17 and 12-10, before bowing to Malak Taha in four games.

Both grad student Maria Moya and junior Maureen Foley came up just short in five-gamers at positions three and five.

This was the Cavaliers’ first loss of the season and first loss against an Ivy League team after picking up wins last week at Yale and Columbia.

FROM HEAD COACH MARK ALLEN

“That was a battle! It is very rare that a women’s college match goes well over three hours long, which it did today, and that shows just how hard the girls fought. Congratulations to Caroline and Lina for picking up a couple of great wins. We had numerous others that were very, very close. Penn is a very good team this year, but there were definitely five winnable matches for us here today. We just needed to have a little more composure to convert a larger share of the games that went to tiebreakers. That was the difference maker for Penn today as they clinched far more of the two-point games than we did.”

UP NEXT

• The Cavaliers close out the weekend by returning to MASC action, taking on No. 6 Drexel (2-1, 2-0 MASC) on Sunday, Nov. 19 at 12 p.m.

#5 Penn 7, #7 Virginia 2

1 | Malak Taha (PENN) def. Meagan Best (VA) 5-11, 19-17, 12-10, 11-2
2 | Lina Tammam (VA) def. Sohaila Ismail (PENN) 11-8, 11-6, 1-11, 11-9
3 | Franka Vidovic (PENN) def. Maria Moya (VA) 7-11, 11-9, 9-11, 11-8, 11-3
4 | Jana Dweek (PENN) def. Olivia Walsh (VA) 12-10, 11-6, 11-7
5 | Avni Anand (PENN) def. Maureen Foley (VA) 8-11, 11-6, 14-16, 11-5, 13-11
6 | Ashna Tumuluri (PENN) def. Clare Minnis (VA) 12-10, 13-11, 5-11, 13-11
7 | Natasha Pensler (PENN) def. Eliza Mills (VA) 12-10, 11-8, 9-11, 11-8
8 | Caroline Pellegrino (VA) def. Emma Wolf (PENN) 11-4, 11-3, 14-12
9 | Grace Lavin (PENN) def. Nili Sprecher (VA) 5-11, 13-11, 11-6, 12-10