Squash: Men roll, women fall to No. 1 Harvard

With a share of the Ivy League title at stake, the men’s and women’s squash teams traveled north to face league foes Dartmouth and Harvard. The men won both matches and preserved a chance to share the Ivy title with Yale, but No. 1 Harvard defeated the women to clinch the title.

The No. 4-ranked men (9-2 overall, 5-1 Ivy League) traveled to Hanover, N.H., to play No. 9 Dartmouth (9-6, 1-4) on Saturday. The Tigers won in a convincing fashion, as they so often do, by once again not losing a single match. Five of the nine players won in the minimum three games, and only two of the Tigers needed five games to win.

Despite such a dominant end result, some of the men struggled initially with different court conditions. “We got off to a slow start,” senior tri-captain Santiago Imberton said, because the courts were colder and the ball bounced less. All four of the players who needed more than three games to win their matches lost in the first game.

After taking some time to adapt to the conditions, the men were able to adjust and win their matches.

The No. 4 women (6-3, 4-2) also went to Hanover, where they faced the No. 9 Dartmouth women (3-8, 0-5). The women lost only one match, beating the Big Green 8-1.

Though Dartmouth’s record may not show it, it is a competitive team.

“They’re pretty solid,” senior tri-captain Kaitlin Sennatt said.

Five Princeton women won in three games. Princeton’s only loss for the day came in five games at the No. 1 position to freshman Julie Cerullo. Junior Nikki Sequeira, who has only recently returned from injury, won the only other five-game match of the day at the No. 5 position.

The Tigers left Dartmouth on Saturday happy to add another mark in the win column, but the real test of the weekend for both teams was on Sunday against Harvard.

“We knew it was going to be a hard match,” Imberton said.

The No. 5 Harvard men (5-3, 4-1) are right behind the Tigers in the rankings and boast one of the top players in the country, No. 1 Colin West. The undefeated Harvard women (8-0, 5-0) are currently ranked No. 1 and before Sunday had not lost more than two individual matches to any team. To remain in competition for the Ivy League title, both the men and the women had to win against Harvard.

Slowed by injuries for most of the season, the men’s team finally had sophomore standouts Kelly Shannon and Chris Callis back in the lineup last weekend against Yale. Unfortunately for the Tigers, the full lineup would not remain intact. After suffering an ankle injury during practice last week, junior No. 2 Dave Letourneau stayed on campus to rest and heal.

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“Playing without Dave Letourneau, the whole weekend presented an even greater challenge,” Imberton said.

Even without Letourneau, the Tigers managed to take down Harvard 7-2.

“Harvard is pretty tough at the top of the lineup,” Imberton said, adding that Princeton’s only two losses came at the top two positions.

Freshman No. 1 Todd Harrity lost for the first time in his college squash career to Harvard’s West in a close four games. West was ranked No. 2 in the preseason College Squash Association individual rankings.

Imberton praised Harrity’s performance. “[Harrity] demonstrated that he’s up there,” Imberton said. “It could have gone either way.”

Senior tri-captain David Canner won in a dominant three games at the No. 4 position, one of only three Tigers to do so. Junior Peter Sopher and sophomore Clay Blackiston also won in three at the No. 7 and No. 8 positions, respectively.

With their win on Sunday, the men preserved a chance to share the Ivy League title with Yale. For that to happen, the Harvard men would need to beat Yale when they play each other next weekend.

The women’s team faced its toughest opponent of the season yet. Though they did not come away with a win, the women tested Harvard more than any other team this year. They lost 6-3, but no other team had been able to take three matches from Harvard yet this season.

On a day of firsts, the women’s team played with its full lineup for the first time yet this season. Senior tri-captain Emery Maine, nursing a foot injury, played through some pain in what the Tigers knew was their most important match yet. Maine noted that fitness is usually the most important aspect of her game, but being on crutches for weeks has limited her ability to maintain it.

“I was lucky that I was able to win in three games,” she said.

Junior Jackie Moss also won in three games at No. 3, as did senior tri-captain Kaitlin Senatt at the No. 6 position.

Unfortunately for the Tigers, those were their only wins on Sunday, and they will not repeat as Ivy League champions, since Harvard clinched at least a share of the title.

“We had a good shot at it,” Maine said. “I think we could have won.”

The Tigers may have a chance at redemption in three weeks at the national championships.