The Radcliffe squash team suffered its third setback of the season Saturday, falling 7-0 to an aggressive and talented squad from Princeton.

The Tigers' win took its cue from the stunning upset of Radcliffe's male counterparts two weekends ago, when Princeton snapped Harvard's 49-match winning streak.

Radcliffe's number one, Ruth Stevens, found Princeton's Wendy Zaharko a deservedly formidable opponent. Stevens kept a cool head and delivered some well-placed rail shots, but fell in three smooth games, 15-3, 15-3, 15-7, to Zaharko's razor-sharp accuracy and powerful hits. Zaharko won the women's national intercollegiate championship in 1972.

Closer Games

In the number-two spot, Radcliffe's Susan Handy dropped her first two games, but proceeded to seize the next two with a series of floating lob serves and well-timed reverse corner drops. Her hard-hitting Princeton foe, Emily Goodfellow, squeezed by to take the match, 15-4, 15-8, 13-15, 12-15, 15-13.

Playing for number four, Sally Lee of Radcliffe surrendered her first two games to Princeton's Claire Townsend. Lee made a hopeful but brief comeback in the third game, only to be overcome in the fourth, 15-7, 15-4, 11-15, 15-13.

Hampered by the absence of its number five and seven players, the Crimson toppled with frustrating regularity in five and seven players, the Crimson toppled with frustrating regularity in matches three, five, six and seven. In the number-three slot, senior Donna Lilly played a fine, consistent game, but lost what she later described as a "precision-tooled match" to the superior technique of Tiger opponent Nancy Carver, 15-11, 15-10, 15-9.

Princeton's edge in experience severely taxed Radcliffe's players five and six. Crimson captain Beth Goddard and Susana de Sola each lost in three straight, tight games.

A recent addition to the Cliffe team, freshman Becky Miles, took the courts for the first time. At number seven, she lost, not unexpectedly, a three-game shutout match.

This third trouncing in four matches has neither daunted the team as a whole, nor disappointed coach Betty Lincoln '53. Lincoln sees the immediate problem to be one of insufficient practice and experience.

Interested People

"The team does very well for the amount that they've played," she said afterwards.

"Now it's a question of getting enough people who are interested in being good athletes to come and practice every day."

"The match with Princeton certainly wasn't close, but it was close enough to show promise," captain Beth Goddard said yesterday. "It's a young team with good depth in the top seven. With only two of our top players seniors, I think there are very good chances for next year."

Radcliffe tangles today with Dartmouth in New Hampshire and will confront Yale in New Haven Saturday.