Yawn! Squashers Destroy Hapless Yalies

After winning the Howe Cup this past weekend, the women's squash, team had just about locked up the National Championship. But following its win yesterday over Ivy League rival Yale, the championship was undisputed. Yale  3 W. Squash  6 Yale  0 M. Squash  9

Led by the play of senior co-captain Libby Eynon, who won 3-0, the women marched to a 6-3 victory. Harvard is now 9-0 in dual match play and is 5-0 in the Ivy League.

The Yale women came into the match 9-0 overall and 4-0 in the Ivy League. However, they had fallen to Harvard in the final match of the Howe Cup.

Before the match began, the Harvard women ran in to trouble as number-two seeded junior Blair Clark came down with an intense flu. Had she not played, the entire team would have had to move up one spot making for a tougher match for each of her teammates.

Luckily for the women Clark came through and played with her sickness. Like Eynon, Clark came into the match undefeated in team play at Harvard. But unlike Eighteen, she did not emerge that way. Clark broke her winning streak with an 0-3 loss, but her match helped key the team's victory.

"She has the flu," Eynon said. "If we didn't have Blair, we would have had to move everyone up a notch. She sacrificed her winning record for the team."

Harvard's victory last night, its 34th in dual match victory in a row, marked its eighth national championship in 12 years.

Eynon attributed the win to coaching of Bill Doyle and the work ethic that he taught.

"We win because we have great coaching," Eynon said. "We worked really hard to get here. Ninty-nine percent perspiration, one percent inspiration."

Men Sweep

The women's squash team had barely finished showering before the men's team won its own Ivy League championship.

Coming into the match, the men were undefeated in overall play as well as Ivy League play. In their 9-0 victory over the Bulldogs, the men clinched the Ivy League championship and extended their undefeated record to 10-0 overall and 6-0 in the Ivy League.

Perhaps the most impressive stat of all is that last night marked the men's 58th straight duel match victory. They have not lost a duel match in the past five seasons.

In their 9-0 victory last night, the men did not lose one game. They won 27 straight games led by the play of number-one seeded junior Tal Ben-Shachar and number-two seeded freshman Dan Ezra.

On the season Ben-Shachar has lost only one match--non-league against Southern California--while Ezra is undefeated.

Ezra said that part of Yale's loss was attributable to its inexperience.

"Yale lost seven of their top nine, and had four players out with injuries," Ezra said.

Injuries or not, Harvard was clearly the dominant team. Despite their dominance, the men did not appear cocky or overconfident.

"We treated our opponents with respect," seventh seed Jeff Blumberg said. "We don't assume we're going to win. If the call is questionable we give it to them."

Unlike the women, however, the men's team has not yet wrapped up the National Championship. The men must wait until the National Team Championships this coming weekend at Princeton.

After their win last night, the men are set for the coming weekend.

"We have the championships this next weekend," Ezra said. "That's what we've been training for. It's great to finish the season on a high but it's really not over yet."

Apparently, junior co-captain Joe Kaplan voices the opinion of the entire team.

"We were very satisfied with the win, but we're very focused for this weekend," he said.