PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania men's and women's squash teams split Ivy League matches Sunday afternoon against Columbia. On the men's side, the second-ranked Quakers picked up their ninth 9-0 win of the season. For the women, the ninth-ranked Quakers dropped a 5-4 heartbreaker to the eighth-ranked Lions.

For the men, Nick Spizzirri, Tushar Shahani, and Omar Hafez all bounced back after dropping their respective first games, closing out each of their matches in four games. The second wave began with a 3-0, 22-minute win out of the No. 9 spot from Abdelrahman Dweek, the quickest match of the day. Omar Hafez followed with another 3-0 win to officially clinch the match, and Saksham Choudhary added a 3-1 win to make it 6-0.

The closing trio of matches may have been Penn's most dominant stretch of the day, with Dana Santry, Nathan Kueh, and Dillon Huang all closing out their 3-0 wins in 33 minutes or less.
 
The women's battle was a near mirror image of Penn's Friday clash with Cornell, with the Quakers going down early and rallying late.
 
Trailing 3-0 after the first flight, Natasha Pensler and Jana Dweek got the Quakers back to 3-2 with respective four-game wins. Penelope Oh rallied from 2-1 down to knot her match, and had match ball in the fifth, but ultimately fell at No. 9, leaving Penn down 4-2 with three to play.

Navmi Sharma pulled Penn back within one to open the final wave, but Columbia got the decisive point out of the #1 spot. Grace Lavin closed the day's action with a four-game win, running her record for the year to 6-0.
 
New England awaits the Quakers next weekend, when the Red and Blue hit the road for Dartmouth on Saturday and Harvard (a rematch of the last two National Championships on the men's side) on Sunday. Both matches will begin at 12:00 p.m.
 
Results

Men's

1. Nathan Kueh def. Harold Castiaux (Col) – 11-6, 11-2, 11-7
2. Nick Spizzirri def. Adam Goad (Col) – 9-11, 11-4, 11-6, 11-5
3. Roger Baddour def. Chaitanya Shah (Col) – 11-4, 11-9, 11-6
4. Omar Hafez def. Franklyn Smith (Col) – 8-11, 11-9, 11-6, 11-3
5. Dillon Huang def. Zach Nam (Col) – 11-3, 11-3, 11-3
6. Saksham Choudhary def. Rutvik Rau (Col) – 11-5, 11-5, 7-11, 11-6
7. Tushar Shahani def. Jacob Bulbulia (Col) – 7-11, 11-7, 11-4, 11-7
8. Dana Santry def. Sameer Saxena (Col) – 11-6, 11-6, 11-6
9. Abdelrahman Dweek def. Ryan Chen (Col) – 11-3, 11-5, 11-5

Order of Finish: 2, 7, 4, 9, 3, 6, 8, 1, 5

Women's

1. Farida Mohamed (Col.) def. Malak Taha – 11-8, 11-8, 11-5
2. Chan Sin Yuk (Col) def. Avni Anand – 11-9, 11-7, 11-3        
3. Jana Dweek def. Sarah Cao (Col) – 9-11, 11-4, 11-8, 11-6
4. Erica McGillicuddy (Col) def. Ashley Manning – 11-8, 9-11, 11-2, 11-8
5. Navmi Sharma def. Elizabeth Lentz (Col) – 11-6, 9-11, 11-9, 11-5
6. Natasha Pensler def. Nourin Khalifa (Col) – 12-10, 9-11, 11-8, 11-4
7. Kiroshanna Manoharan (Col) def. Eujung Park – 11-9, 11-7, 11-7
8. Grace Lavin def. Aleexa Khan (Col) – 7-11, 11-4, 11-7, 11-4
9. Amhal Izhar (Col) def. Penelope Oh – 7-11, 11-8, 11-8, 7-11, 13-11

Order of Finish: 2, 7, 4, 6, 3, 9, 5, 1, 8