PHILADELPHIA – The Penn men’s and women’s squash teams are back in action on Wednesday night as they travel to Lancaster, Pa. to face Franklin & Marshall. The men (3-4, 0-2 Ivy) are coming off a tough weekend, during which they lost to Harvard and Dartmouth in their first Ivy League weekend of the season. The fifth-ranked women (5-1, 1-1) split their weekend series, falling short against the Crimson, 6-3, and sweeping the Big Green, 9-0.

The Men

The No. 13 Quakers will be facing a seventh-ranked Diplomat team that hasn’t competed since Jan. 7 when Franklin & Marshall (4-3) fell to No. 5 Rochester at home, 6-3. The match will begin at 7:30 p.m. at the Mayser Center Squash Courts.

The battle at No. 1 will most likely be between Quaker senior captain Danny Greenberg and F&M’s Guilherme de Melo. The two have met three times, with all three close matches going de Melo’s way. The third position could see John Dudzik meeting Ryan Mullaney in their second collegiate match against one another. Mullaney took the first meeting on Jan. 19 of last season in four very close games.

Penn leads the all-time series, 35-10, but are losers of the last two meetings. History gives the Quakers the advantage though, as they are 15-5 on the road against the Diplomats. The last time the two teams met was on Jan. 19 of last season at the Ringe Squash Courts. Penn had a 3-2 lead heading into the final four matches of the night, but were unable to capitalize on their lead, allowing F&M to win three of them, as well as the match, 5-4.

The Women

The Red and Blue will face off with No. 15 F&M (4-3) at 6 p.m. in a match that favors the road team heavily. After pushing defending Howe Cup champion Harvard to the brink in its toughest test of the season, then following that up with a quick sweep of No. 8 Dartmouth, the Quakers will look to sweep the Diplomats as well. Both teams have had common opponents to this point in the season, but the one that stands out is both teams’ last opponent, the Big Green. Penn defeated Dartmouth, 9-0, whereas Franklin & Marshall fell by the same score on Jan. 2 – that was F&M’s most recent match of the season.

The Quakers lead the all-time series, 33-9, and are 12-5 in Lancaster against the Diplomats. The last time the Red and Blue dropped a match to F&M was in 1993, which gives them a current win streak of 15 matches. The two teams last met on Jan. 19 of last season at Ringe, and Penn bested the Diplomats easily, 9-0, behind convincing wins from everyone in its ladder, winning every match in straight games.