Women's Squash Dominates in Victory at Williams

In another impressive display of program dominance, the Harvard women’s squash team defeated 15th-ranked Williams for the 32nd-straight year. Strong performances across the board by the Crimson women led to the group’s fourth straight 9-0 shutout of the year.

“We went up to Williams [Tuesday] morning and took the match very seriously as sort of a practice for this weekend, [with] two of our biggest matches [against Princeton and Penn] coming up,” co-captain Haley Mendez said. “So everyone had their game plans and was focusing on what they needed to work on.”

With the non-conference triumph, top-ranked Harvard (4-0, 1-0 Ivy) has now won its first four matches of the season for each of the past ten years, while the Ephs (6-6) fell to seventh in its conference.

While Harvard has the No. 1-ranked collegiate squash player in the country in junior Amanda Sobhy, the rest of the team continued to demonstrate that the squad is far from a one-trick pony. As a whole, the Crimson came into the match having dropped only three sets the entire year.

With Sobhy sitting out of the contest against Williams, it was up to Mendez, who finished the previous season as the tenth-ranked individual player nationally, to take the lead in the No. 1 position. The Brooklyn, NY native got the Crimson off to a fast start, sweeping the Ephs’ Alyssa Northrop in straight sets.

“I had a good match, I was coming off a…tournament this past weekend in Philadelphia where I lost to Amanda in the final,” Mendez said. “But it was a good weekend for me, so I was feeling good about how I was playing. I wanted to continue that trend.”

Mendez’s victory was a sign of things to come, as Harvard didn’t yield a single set the rest of the evening.

Playing in the No. 2 position for the first time this season, Karki earned her third match win of the season, defeating sophomore Nicole Feshbach, 11-6, 11-2, 11-4.

Among the other winners was freshman Katie Tutrone who, after competing in the No. 4 position in her last appearance against Drexel, moved up to No. 3. Tutrone easily dismantled her opponent, winning in straight sets of 11-2, 11-2, and 11-1.

The freshmen front of Dileas MacGowan, Caroline Monrad, and Emily Jones followed with three-set wins of their own in the No. 5, No. 8, and No. 9 positions, respectively.

“[In] their first matches in the top nine, [Monrad and Jones] had 3-0 wins,” Mendez said. “That was exciting to see two freshmen, in their first varsity match, perform well.”

“The freshmen have really added another dimension to the team,” said sophomore Saumya Karki, who earned a win out of the No. 2 position. “They’re very confident when they go out…. I think [we’ll] really have to watch out for them this season.”

Continuing the strong play in the No. 6 and No. 7 positions were sophomore Isabella Dowling and junior Meghan Murray, who similarly handled their opponents in shutout fashion.

Though all Crimson women may have brought the brooms to Williamstown, Mass. on Tuesday, there were a few close calls on the day.

After winning her first two sets handily in the No. 4 match, Harvard junior Julianne Chu found herself deadlocked with junior Ellie O’Neill, with the score tied up at eight. Unfazed and unfaltering, Chu calmly rallied for the next three points to put the match away.

Monrad also gave up eight or nine points in each of her sets but eked out a win each time as well. But otherwise, the day was a one-sided affair in favor of the Crimson.

“I think today was a pretty decisive win,” Karki said. “Our [goal] going into today was to get a good warm-up, to get things going before our big matches against Princeton and Penn this weekend…. We did our best and won comfortably.”

Moving to conference play at the end of the week, Harvard looks to avenge last year’s loss at the hands of then No. 3-ranked Tigers, which prevented the Crimson from repeating as Ivy League champions. Now at No. 4 nationally, Princeton will travel to the Murr Center hoping to replicate its 5-4 victory in 2013 over Harvard in a math that came down to the final set.

Even after the loss to the Tigers, though, the Crimson bounced back to win the Howe Cup at the CSA National Championships for the 14th time and will be looking to make it 15 and four in five years in a little over a month.

—Staff writer Caleb Lee can be reached at caleblee@college.harvard.edu.