Men's Squash Continues Win Streak

It’s been exactly a month since the Harvard men’s squash team last saw play action, but the hiatus changed absolutely nothing. The No. 2 Crimson (5-0) returned from its winter vacation to down Williams (4-8) in dramatic fashion at Williams’ Simon Squash Center, keeping its pre-break winning streak alive.

“We were a lot stronger than them today,” sophomore Sam Goldberg said. “But it’s always a good experience to play them each year, and it’s always good to get that out of the way.”

Harvard easily kept its perfect record intact, claiming victories in all nine positions in the meeting. Having not dropped a match yet this season, the Crimson have now shut out their last five opponents, making this the longest sweeps streak for Harvard since 2006.

“I feel really comfortable with how we did,” senior Gary Power said. “Everyone played well today, everyone looked prepared, and I thought that was the most important thing. We just came back from a long break, so it was a good win overall.”

Senior Tom Mullaney, sophomore Matt Roberts, and Goldberg each managed to make strong returns from their vacations, recording wins for the Crimson at the eighth, ninth, and tenth positions, to maintain Harvard’s undefeated record at the end of the contest.

The only game won by Williams was garnered at the number four position by Williams’ Andrew Maruca. Maruca managed to rebound after two dropped games, 11-9 and 11-6,  to win the third set, 11-7, against Harvard’s Nigel Koh. Koh responded with a decisive 11-1 victory in the fourth game to claim the match for the Crimson.

Sophomore Nicholas Hopcroft and junior Tyler Olson also notched wins, in very similar fashion, for Harvard, overpowering their opponents with almost identical scores, 11-7, 11-4, 11-5 for Hopcroft and 11-7, 11-5, 11-8 on Olson’s end.

Six different players for the Crimson improved their personal records to 4-0 in the contest, while the remaining team members boosted their own records to 3-0 with the wins picked up against Williams.

“I think we’ve really been working hard lately, so we’re very physically prepared for these games,” Power said. “You can definitely see that there is a very strong desire to win on this team.”

Senior Brandon McLaughlin kicked off the fiery performance for Harvard with a win in straight sets at the number one seed.  McLaughlin managed to handily defeat Williams’ Christopher Wilkinson in consecutive games, 11-1, 11-1, 11-2, to give the Crimson a substantial advantage at the start of the competition.  With this win, McLaughlin brought his personal record to 3-0.

“Brandon really had a standout performance,” Power said. “He held his opponent to four points, which was the lowest allowed on the team.”

Following McLaughlin’s strong showing, Power also contributed a win at the second position, knocking out Williams’ Jamie Ruggiero in consecutive games 11-9, 11-6, 11-6, moving his season record to 3-0.

The Harvard squad kept this trend going, notching wins by substantial margins all competition long.  Eight of the nine matches were won in consecutive games as the Crimson continuously managed to outmaneuver Williams in straight sets.

“The highlights for me were getting all the cobwebs off from the short time we had off,” Goldberg said.  “It was really exciting to not lose a match. We went in there and did what we were supposed to do and came out on top, which is always good.”

The two freshman of the squad, Dylan Murray and Bryan Koh, also contributed big wins for the Crimson.  Murray shut out Williams’ Taylor Foehl 11-3, 11-6, 11-4, while Koh managed to outplay his opponent, Galen Squiers 11-9, 11-9, 11-7.  Both of the freshmen have seen their records improve to a 4-0 standing.

With this commanding win notched, Harvard is now looking to its next showing, as it takes on highly ranked teams in the upcoming weeks.

“So far things are going really well this year,” Goldberg said. “But we have a few hard matches which are coming up this coming weekend.  They should be really good matches in testing our ability.”

With formidable opponents in the very near future for the Crimson, the squad maintains a steady confidence going forward.

“We’ve yet to have our big matches of the season,” Power said. “But I absolutely think we are ready for them.  We are well prepared.”

—Staff writer Jillian Dukes can be reached at jdukes01@college.harvard.edu.