Men's Squash Downs Killer P's

With a new year comes a new streak for the No. 5 Harvard men’s squash team (3-2, 3-0 Ivy). The reigning national champion opened the 2015 season with a road trip to No. 9 Princeton (3-4, 1-1) and No. 11 Penn (5-2, 1-1) over the weekend.

In the Ivy League double header, the Crimson defeated Princeton on Saturday and Penn on Sunday by identical 7-2 scores.

“We were definitely a little bit nervous,” sophomore Devin McLaughlin said. “Obviously Penn and Princeton are always very good teams year in and year out, but coming off the break, everyone came out and trained really hard. We had two tough losses…and we just wanted to rally ourselves, and play a lot better, more focused and as a team.”

HARVARD 7, PENN 2

The Crimson traveled to Ringe Courts in Philadelphia, PA. on Sunday to catch its third win of the season against the Quakers.

Harvard rookies Madhav Dhingra and Bradley Smith had the longest matches of the afternoon, both lasting five sets each.

Dhingra initially led 2-1, but was unable to best Penn's Marwan Mahmoud, who rallied in the last two sets. Smith kept his winning streak alive after pulling through in a long match against Hayes Murphy of the Quakers.

“I think they were the closest matches of the weekend so far with two 3-2s.” Smith said. “It gets pretty tense. In the sixth game it depends, it could maybe go either way if it gets really close, so it gets pretty tense, pretty interesting at that point.”

Another freshman, Seif Eleinen, made his debut this weekend for the Crimson at the No. 9 spot. He kicked off his career with a sweep, taking out Penn’s George Lemmon in three sets.

Co-captain Tyler Olson earned his third sweep of the season against Tyler Odell, remaining undefeated on the year with five wins.

Sophomore Dylan Murray, freshman David Ryan, and junior Matt Roberts also contributed wins—Murray and Roberts with sweeps—to solidify Harvard’s win.

“We definitely played a lot more together as a team these two matches than we did earlier in the season.” McLaughlin said. “I think we have to keep the motivation up, keep our fitness levels high, just keep training, and stay focused.”

HARVARD 7, PRINCETON 2

The Crimson's two-match losing streak ended in Jadwin Gym in Princeton, N.J., as it recorded a second straight win against the Tigers and its first win of the new year.

“Every match we approach the same way,” Smith said. “You can’t take anything for granted…. It’s still about how you perform on that day and having everyone looking to win that title. We’re capable of doing [it], so it’s important to really try and focus and get perform the best you can on the day.”

Harvard posted a slow start, losing the first two matches.

Princeton’s All-American Samuel Kang took the No. 1 spot against Dhingra in four games. Dhingra had a close 13-11 win in the first set, but could not keep the momentum going, losing the next three to lose the match, 3-1.

Murray also fell to another Princeton All-American, Tyler Osborne, losing three straight sets.

The tide turned for Harvard after that, with the squad dominating the next seven games.

Ryan started his Crimson career with a sweep against the Tigers’ Taylor Tutrone at the No. 5 spot.

Fellow freshman Mandela Patrick also recorded his first win of the season with a 3-1 result against Ben Leizman in the No. 9 spot.

Olson clinched his fourth victory of the season, taking the No. 8 spot, winning 3-1 against Abhimanyu Shah.

Smith, McLaughlin, and sophomore Bryan Koh also swept their opponents. Roberts defeated Sam Ezratty in the longest match of the meet, taking five sets to win.

“Over the last two matches I performed pretty well,” McLaughlin said. “Definitely a lot better than before J-term. I had a tough first few matches, but I came out a lot stronger after Christmas.”

—Staff writer Katherine H. Scott can be reached at katherinescott@college.harvard.edu.