PHILADELPHIA - The University of Pennsylvania men's squash team will get its season started this weekend when it travels to Franklin and Marshall for the second annual Pennsylvania State Classic. The Quakers will be looking to defend their title in which they defeated Franklin and Marshall and No. 9 Drexel by the combined score of 17-1 last season. Joining Penn will be Franklin and Marshall, Drexel, and Dickinson.
The Red and Blue's first match will take place at 1 p.m. on Saturday against host school Franklin and Marshall. The winner of that match will then play the winner of Drexel and Dickinson on Sunday at 12 p.m.
Penn enters the season ranked No. 6 in the nation by the College Squash Association. The Red and Blue competed in the Ivy Scrimmages last week where it made the final for the first time in program history losing to Harvard, 5-4.
Previewing Penn
The Captains
The Quakers are captained by
Max Reed,
David Yacobucci, and Johnathan Zeitels. All three are first time captains, but have played a large role in the Penn line-up over the past few seasons.
The Returners
Returning for the Quakers from last year's line-up are
Yash Bhargava,
Andrew Douglas,
Wil Hagen,
Max Reed, and
David Yacobucci. Bhargava and Douglas return as sophomores this season. Bhargava was a staple in the middle of the Quaker line-up posting an 18-4 record while Douglas played his entire freshman season at the No. 1 slot on his way to becoming just the second freshman in Penn men's squash history to be awarded First-Team All-American and First-Team All-Ivy.
The Freshmen
Head coach Gilly Lane brought in a strong freshman class this season led by the trio of
Aly Abou Eleinen,
James Flynn, and
Michael Mehl. Last December, Eleinen was seeded fifth at the 2017 US Junior U19 Open and advanced to the semi-finals.
Flynn and Mehl both come to Penn from Canada. Flynn was selected as the Canadian representative attending the Youth Olympic Games as one of the representatives for squash. Mehl is a three-time U19 Canadian National Champion and helped the team to gold medal in the Canada Winter Games in 2015.
Building on Last Week
The Quakers saw their first action last weekend at the Ivy League scrimmages held at Yale in which the men made the final for the first time in program history. Penn will be looking to build on last week's performance as they play their first matches of the 2018-19 season.
