PHILADELPHIA - The University of Pennsylvania women'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 16-2 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, who enters the season ranked No. 6 in the nation competed in the Ivy Scrimmages last week where it finished fourth.
Previewing Penn
Reeham the Captain and National Champion
The Quakers are captained by
Reeham Salah who makes her debut as captain in her senior season. Last year she made the finals at the CSA Individual Championship and became Penn's first national champion since Jessica DiMauro in 1996. Salah defeated Georgina Kennedy from Harvard in four games.
The Penn captain finished her junior year with a perfect 20-0 record, losing just two games all season. At the end of the year she was named Ivy League Player of the Year for the second straight year, becoming the only player in program history to win the award in back-to-back seasons.
The Returners
Starters from last year's line-up that are returning this season are
Rowaida Attia,
Julia Buchholz,
Jessica Davis,
Margaret Frantz,
Clare Kearns,
Haley Scott,
Lindsay Stanley, and
Nicole Windreich. Buchholz had an impressive freshman season finishing with 12 wins and a 5-2 record in Ivy play.
Davis will also be back near the top of the line-up. The junior went 11-3 as a freshman helping the team to a second place finish at the Howe Cup. She went 3-1 last season before an injury sidelined her for the remainder of the year.
Attia, Stanley and Scott bring consistency and experience in the middle of the line-up.
Newcomers
The Quakers bring in one newcomer to the lineup - freshman
Jamila Tamer from Cairo, Egypt.
Building on Last Week
The Quakers saw their first action last weekend at the Ivy League scrimmages held at Yale in which the women placed fourth. Penn will be looking to build on last week's performance as they play their first matches of the 2018-19 season.
