The girls of Penn Charter hosted the 2023-24 squash season opener last Thursday and swept the visitors from the Main Line.
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The girls of Penn Charter hosted the 2023-24 squash season opener last Thursday at the Kline & Specter Squash Center, pitting the Quakers against the HLM Ram Aces, a combination team made up of athletes from Harriton High School and Lower Merion High School.
Although the last match on the court went a full five games, PC won this contest and the eight that preceded it for a 9-0 sweep of the visitors from the Main Line.
Junior twins Alex and Sam Jaffe were the second and third runners on Penn Charter's cross country team a year ago, but they did not race this fall in order to concentrate on squash. Both have already made a verbal commitment to play for Princeton University.
Last Thursday, each sister prevailed over her HLM opponent in three brief games. At number one, Sam dispatched visitor Rory Dasher, 11-2, 11-2, 11-3, while in the second spot Alex won, 11-2, 11-5, 11-4 over Abigail Ward.
The two senior captains for the Quakers this winter are Frances Guenther and Savannah Abernethy. Abernethy would be on the court at the very end of Thursday's encounter, while Guenther's bout was among the first set of matches. At number three, she overcame Penelope Cohen of the Ram Aces, 11-7, 11-8, 11-4.
Aside from the Jaffes, the PC roster features another set of twins, freshmen Libby and Paige Taub. Libby got ahead of rival number five Hannah Greenstein in two 11-7 games, then finished up with an 11-5 victory. Paige, in the sixth position, won 11-4, 11-7, 11-7 over visitor Cecelia Roberts.
In the seventh spot, sophomore Audrey Abernethy (Savannah's sister) dispatched Julia Mintz of Harriton/Lower Merion, 11-3, 11-4, 11-6. Two more 10th-graders played in the eighth and ninth flights for the Quakers.
Number eight Hope Goldman got past Manna Cohan in three sets (11-7, 11-6, 11-2), while in the ninth match Anna Buckley went four frames to defeat HLM's Pip Mastaglio, 11-5, 11-5, 8-11, 11-7.
The Quakers then gathered around to watch the conclusion of the last match to be decided, which featured the elder Abernethy. She took the first two games, 12-10, 11-4, but visiting number four Julia Carrasco rebounded with win the third and fourth, 11-5, 12-10. Abernethy made a strong start in the fifth game and went on to win it, 11-3, completing Penn Charter's 9-0 sweep.
