Racketmen Steamroller Cornell in 9-0 Shut-Out

The squash team was so hot yesterday that it's a wonder the courts didn't burn up. The Crimson blitzed Cornell 9-0, and all nine Harvard players won their matches by 3-0 shutouts.

No one could remember another time when a Harvard team had won 27 of 27 games during an intercollegiate match. Even last year, when the Crimson also best Cornell 9-0, four Big Red players managed to salvage one game.

Today the Crimson faces rougher opposition from a McGill squad that ranks first among Canadian colleges. The match at Hemenway starts at 2:30 p.m.

In last year's match, Harvard eked out a 6-3 win over the Canadians despite the absence of the Crimson's second and fourth players. This time around, the Crimson team should win more easily, but almost every individual match should be close.

Harvard's captain and number one player, Vic Niederhoffer, should get his toughest intercollegiate test of the year so far from Colin Adair, who has been leading the McGill team for quite a few years. In Canadian squash circles, graduate students as well as undergraduates are eligible for college matches.

Crimson coach Jack Barnaby says that the team is out to show in today's match that it can be called a great squad. The 1951 team, which lost only six individual matches, is generally considered Harvard's best.

In the game yesterday, leading the rout against Cornell was number six man John Thorndike, who walloped Ron Booth, 15-7, 15-3, 15-8. John Vinton, number five, lost only one more point than Thorndike, crushing Craig Sommers, 15-8, 15-3, 15-8.

Niederhoffer easily polished off Jim Cohen in the top match, 15-7, 15-6, 15-10. Bill Morris had the toughest match of any Crimson player, but he wore down dogged Bill Taylor for an 18-17, 15-11, 15-3 win.

Lou Williams, the third man for Harvard, demolished Paul Fein, 15-11, 15-10, 15-10. Terry Robinson smashed Bob Merrill, 15-7, 15-7, 15-10; Alan Terrell beat Mike Key, 15-13, 15-3, 15-7; Dinny Adams breezed past Joe Friedman, 15-6, 15-8, 15-11; and John Francis topped Chuck Henderson, 15-12, 15-10, 15-11 to round on the Crimson victory.