PHILADELPHIA- The University of Pennsylvania men's squash team, ranked No. 1 in the College Squash Association (CSA) preseason rankings, returns to regular season competition this weekend with three matches in two days for the Pennsylvania State Championships.  

Matches begin Saturday against Franklin & Marshall and Dickinson at 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., respectively, with play continuing Sunday at 1 p.m. when the Quakers face No. 6 Drexel in a true Battle of 33rd Street.

How to Watch
Streams for this weekend can be found here:
Franklin & Marshall | 10 a.m.
Dickinson | 1:30 p.m.
Drexel | 1:00 p.m. 

Previewing Penn
Head coach Gilly Lane begins his eighth year at the helm of the Red and Blue; he has led the Quakers to a 31-1 regular season record over the last two years, and Penn won the outright Ivy League championship for just the second time in program history in 2021-22.

Penn completed the 2022-23 regular season with a 15-1 record, going 5-1 in the conference with the only loss coming 5-4 at eventual champion Harvard. The Red and Blue remained pure at home with a 9-0 record at the Penn Squash Center.

Coach Lane: "We are extremely excited about the upcoming season. We are welcoming back some of the best players we have had at Penn with some new young talent. Our focus is one day at a time, one match at a time. Focusing on the process we hope to achieve our goals set out for the season."
 
The Returners
The captains for the Quakers this season include seniors Nick Spizzirri and Dana Santry, and junior Roger Baddour. Spizzirri finished team competition 15-0 and added a victory during CSA individuals last season, earning first-team CSA All-America and first-team All-Ivy honors. Santry went 12-3 during team competition and 5-1 in Ivy play last season. Baddour finished 7-3 and 4-1 in conference play last year, earning second-team CSA All-America and first-team All-Ivy honors.

Other notable returners include junior Nathan Kueh who finished team competition 14-5 including a 5-1 mark in Ivy play, went 3-1 at CSA Individuals, and earned first-team CSA All-America and first-team All-Ivy honors. Sophomore Omar Hafez garnered Ivy League Rookie of the Year last season and will look to continue making an impact in the lineup, as he went 16-2 during the year and 5-1 in Ivy League play. Junior Abdelrahman Dweek played in three different spots in the lineup last season and will be a key member of the rotation after finishing the 2022-23 season 12-2 and a perfect 6-0 in Ivy play. Sophomore Rehan Luthra will look to build off of his 8-1 season last year, as will junior Shaam Gambhir who went 7-1 in eight matches last season.

The Newcomers
The Quakers welcome five freshmen: Varun Chitturi, Salman Khalil, Ben Mathias, Kyle Penman, and Jat Tse. The group hails from four different countries and three different continents. They will compete with the returners for places in the starting IX.

Key Matches
Following this weekend's action, Coach Lane's squad will face Western Ontario, Virginia and Navy the following weekend in Philadelphia. The Quakers will face Williams on December 3 before starting conference play.

Ivy League competition begins in January with all members of the conference ranked in the Top 10 of the CSA preseason poll. Penn will face #9 Cornell on January 19 at home to welcome league play and will also host Dartmouth and Harvard this season. The Quakers will face Columbia, #2 Yale and Princeton on the road this season.

The CSA Men's Team Championships will take place at the Arlen Specter Squash Center on Drexel's campus from February 29 to March 3, just up 33rd Street from the Penn Squash Center. The CSA Individual Championships will run from March 8-10, also at the Specter Center.