Squash: Two National Champs

When you talk about the Harvard men's and women's squash teams, it's easy to throw around the words "national champions." And because the Crimson teams are perennially so dominant, it's easy to forget what that means.

Harvard has the best collegiate squash players in the country, Period.

Representatives from the Crimson proved that undeniably this weekend at the national individual championships at Trinity and Navy. Juniors Vanya Desai and Adrian Ezra captured their respective crowns as expected. Their victories which seem so ho-hum in black and white are rather amazing. Desai and Ezra are the two best collegiate squash players in the country, and which is more, they both live in the same house at Harvard.

The Lowell residents breezed through their respective draws, won the finals and assumed their thrones. Desai for the first time, Ezra for the second (he won in 1991 as a precocious freshman).

Ezra dispatched teammate and Co-Captain Marty Clark in the a ridiculously close championship game that saw the junior come back from a two-game deficit and a 12-8 score in third to pull out the win 3-2.

"I'm pretty psyched because it's a big tournament," Ezra said. "It's too bad I had to beat Marty."

Desai had an easier time beating Franklin and Marshall's Margo Green, winning 3-1.

"Vanya played beautifully the whole tournament," Co-Captain Carrie Cunningham said. "She deserved to win it."

And the rest of the Crimson didn't do so badly either. The men's team sent Ezra. Clark and freshman Ted Brunno who lost in the third round.

The women sent an amazing seven players to the tournament.

Junior Jordanna Fraiberg took fourth place, sophomore Libby Eynon took fifth, rookie Erin Dockery garnered sixth and Cunningham rounded out Harvard's players in the top ten at tenth place.

"Its kind of absurd to have five players finish in the top ten," Cunningham said. "It just shows how good we were this year."

Hey, Magic, Michael, and Larry, eat your hearts out. We've got our own Dream Team.

"I feel kind of empty now that's its over," Cunningham said. "It's kind of weird to end up with an individual tournament because we had such a great year as a team."