M., W. Squash Take Cornell by Storm

The hardest part of the weekend for the men's and women's squash teams was enduring the long bus ride to and from Ithaca, N.Y.

Sandwiched between hours of driving through cold and barren countryside, the men (3-0) took all nine matches from Cornell and the women (2-0) triumphed 8-1 as both Harvard teams remained undefeated.

Harvard Men 9, Cornell 0

All nine men swept their individual matches 3-0, with Pete Karlen, Shondip Ghosh and Dylan Patterson leading the way in the top three spots.

Lacking the depth that has made Harvard a perennial contender for the national title, the Big Red did provide some competition in the top spots that the scores don't indicate.

One particular bright spot for Harvard was the return of Karlen, the team's top player, who looked strong despite still feeling the pain of a shoulder ailment.

"He's a workhorse," said No. 8 Dave Barry, a longtime playing partner and boyhood friend of Karlen's. "He played through any pain he still had."

James Bullock, Deepak Abraham and Andrew Merrill cruised to victory in the middle of the lineup, and Isaac Whitman, Barry and Thomas Storch proved equally dominant in the bottom three positions.

"Our coach, Satinder Bajwa, did a great job of keeping us focused," Barry said. "It's a long trip for one match, but the team enjoyed being together."

Harvard Women 8, Cornell 1

On the women's side, the Crimson was able to overcome a loss at the No. 1 position by winning the remaining eight matches.

Louise Hall dropped a hard-fought dual, 3-2, to Cornell's Olga Puigdemont-Sola, who was playing in her first collegiate match since returning from the world championships.

Harvard's Ella Witcher went to five games with Kellen Heckscher, but triumphed 9-1 in the deciding fifth game to win the only other close match of the day.

No. 4 Colby Hall dropped her first game, but went on to capture the remaining three in convincing fashion.

No. 2 Margaret Elias and the rest of the lineup--Virginia Brown, Ashley Harmeling, Katie Gregory, Kristen Madhwa and Ellie Shields--scored 3-0 victories.

With no official matches or tournaments scheduled until January, Bajwa has arranged an exhibition match this Tuesday evening with the University of Cape Town.

A trip to South Africa would indeed be more intriguing than this past weekend's trip to Ithaca, but at least for this year, Harvard will play host to Cape Town.