Racquet Squad Smashes Navy, Hosts Big Red

Primed for one of its more difficult matches of the season, Harvard's squash team swept Navy right out of Hemenway Gymnasium yesterday, 9-0, in its opening match of the season.

The Crimson will host a rather shallow Cornell team at 2 p.m. today in the Ivy League opener.

Against Navy, the outcome was never in doubt. Todd Wilkinson, Harvard's number four player, started things off by humbling Navy's Bob Earl, 15-5, 15-3, 15-3, in less than 20 minutes.

Sophomore Jose Gonzalez and Rick Sterne, second and third for the Crimson, followed suit by winning in three straight games.

Problems

For the rest of the team, it wasn't quite so easy. In the number one match. Crimson captain Dinny Adams had problems overcoming Bob Emery, 13-18, 15-6, 15-11, 10-15, 15-12. Steve Simpson (number five), after dropping games of 15-12 and 15-1, settled down to defeat hard-hitting Steve Abbot of Navy.

Harvard's bottom four players -- Craig Stapleton, Dave Benjamin, Peter Brooks, and Matt Hall -- all won by 3-1 scores.

Though Harvard's play showed occasional signs of early-season raggedness and less-than-precision shots, it's comforting to see the Crimson win all the way down the ladder against such scrappers as the Middles. Even opening-day jitters or a few flukes usually cost somebody a match against a fairly deep on opposing team.

Cornell, which lost to Harvard 9-0 last year, should give the varsity little trouble this afternoon.