Racquetmen Bomb Midshipmen, 8-1

It was just like old times.

After barely defeating a weaker Trinity squad Wednesday, the nation's number-one ranked Harvard men's squash team returned to familiar form last night, crushing Navy, 8-1, in its first home match of the season.

The racquetmen (now 2-0) extended their winning streak to 60 consecutive victories, making them co-holders of the second longest winning streak in collegiate history.

The squad's 60th straight victory puts the Crimson in the record book along side the University of San Francisco basketball teams, which set their record in the early 1960's. The longest winning streak ever is 88, held by the 1971-'74 UCLA basketball teams.

San Fracisco will not be sharing the unbeaten spotlight with the Crimson much longer.

Today at Hemenway Gym. Harvard will face MIT, a team that has never defeated Harvard in the history of the rivalry. In 43 meetings against the Engineers, the Crimson has recorded 36 shutouts. To further illustrate the disparity, Harvard has won 368 individual matches to MIT's 10.

It's highly unlikely that MIT will end Harvard's winning streak. In fact, it's unthinkable.

"We don't really give [the streak] much thought," senior Darius Pandole said. "We go out and play and if we keep winning, it's all well and good. I thought all of us played pretty well since we have been playing with a [softer ball] for the past week [in England]."

The competition opened with Pandole, the Crimson's number two player, capturing a victory over Navy's Ed Sloop, 15-12, 15-13, 15-5. Pandole dominated the match with a combination of perfectly placed drop shots and beautiful reverse angle shots.

Frank Hurta, a member of the Crimson JV team last year, cruised to a 15-6, 15-13, 15-6 victory over Lance Wood.

Playing at number four, James Gilfillan captured Harvard's third straight victory, recording a straightset victory over Navy's Dave Woodbury.

"The difference today was that the guys were hungry," Co-Captain Russ Ball said. "They wanted it so bad they could taste it."

Seeing action for the first time this season because of a separated shoulder. Harvard's Jack Colbourne jumped out to a 2-1 lead in games before Sunic Desai bounced back to win the fourth game, 15-12. Colbourne's five-game victory upped the Crimson's lead, 4-0.

"Jack Colbourne did well to win," Harvard Coach Dave Fish said. "This was the first time that he picked up a racket in three weeks. He's a very important member of the line-up."

Ball, playing number one, whipped his opponent in straight sets, 15-12, 15-10, 15-8 to seal the Crimson's 60th consecutive victory.

John Masland, Seth Handy, and Jim Masland, John's younger brother, all played well in capturing victories for Harvard.

In a flip-flop match, freshman George Polsky, playing number five for the Crimson, fell to Navy's Mark Nicholson in five games. With the match tied at 2-2, Polsky and Nicholson battled back and forth, before Nicholson pulled out a hard-fought 15-11 match.

"The attitude was a lot more postive," Masland said. "We came out a lot more intense. We went out and beat them pretty bad."

Playing at number 10, 11 and 12 in unofficial matches. Mike Foster, Doug Cohen and Charles Dowling all recorded straight set victories in their matches.