Crimson Squash Crushes Bruins

Another year of Harvard squash began, rather appropriately, with a first-class squashing of Brown last night at Hemenway Gym.

In its first dual match of the year, the Harvard men's and women's squash teams continued to live up to their national reputations. While the women cruised to a 7-2 win over the Bruins, the men dominated the visitors in a 9-0 shutout.

Even though the teams had just recently switched from softball competition to the hardball circuit, it hardly showed in their performances.

The women were paced by the solid performances of Co-Captains Carrie Cunningham and Kathy Shergalis. All seven of the Crimson victories were decided by 3-0 margins.

"We're looking pretty good right now. If we can just stay healthy, we should keep rolling," Cunningham said.

Injuries have plagued the Crimson this year; top recruit Erin Dockery sat out with a hand injury last night. But injuries could not stop Libby Eynon, who played with a leg brace, and Blair Clark, who has been hampered by a bad back, from winning their matches.

Clark had probably Harvard's most interesting match in her 15-10, 15-7, 15-4 defeat of Brown's Alex Gordon. After taking a 3-0 lead in the second game, Gordon started to make numerous mental mistakes, eliciting screams of frustration that would make Boris Becker proud.

"She was really beating herself by the end," said Clark. "When she fell behind, she seemed to sense that she couldn't win, and she fell apart."

Clark's brother Marty paced the men's team to an even more decisive victory. His 15-7, 15-6, 15-4 butchering of Brown's Peter Worth led the Crimson to an easy shutout, in which Harvard lost a total of one game.

That one game was lost by freshman Tal Ben-Shachan in his contest with Clark Miller, but as Coach Bill Doyle explained, it was quite understandable.

"Tal has only been playing hardball for three days in his entire life," said Doyle. "Fortunately, he likes the game a lot, and that should make his transition much easier."

All of the other matches were decided by lopsided 3-0 scores. And the Brown players noticed.

"This guy's playing unbelievably," remarked one of Bruins while watching Harvard's Jon Karlen play a virtually flawless second game in a 15-7, 15-2, 15-14 pasting of Brown Co-Captain Natti Taylor.

Both the men and the women face Trinity on December 2. That match--for the women, at least--figures to be more of a challenge.

"Trinity is historically one of the top four teams in the country, so it should be a tough match," Doyle said. "But hopefully, [Dockery] will be back by then, so we can put our strongest lineup out there."

Not that they had any problems with last night's nine.