Team Gears up for Trinity by Squashing Big Green

The Harvard Squash teams played a competitive Dartmouth team last night on the Barnaby Courts at the Murr Center. The Crimson completely dominated play, easily defeating the Big Green in preparation for a serious showdown against arch-rival Trinity, one of the best squash teams in the country.

The Crimson women (4-0, 3-0 Ivy) defeated Dartmouth (6-4, 0-2) by the score of 9-0. The Crimson won eight of its nine matches by the score of three games to none.

No. 1 Harvard was led by freshman Louisa Hall playing in the first spot and co-captains Margaret Elias and Virginia Brown.

The Crimson was already looking ahead to the challenge posed by Trinity even as it dispatched Dartmouth.

"We took this match very seriously," Elias said. "But everything we're doing right now is in preparation for Trinity."

Trinity, as the No. 3 team in the country, poses a serious challenge to the Crimson.

"It's gonna be close," Elias said. "Trinity is very good."

Brown was not expecting the Crimson to roll over Trinity with the same authority that it employed against Dartmouth, winning eight of the nine matches in three games.

"We won't be upset if we win and there are a lot of five game matches," Brown said.

The Trinity match signals the start of a tough three game stretch for Harvard as it plays Trinity and then Penn and Princeton on February 10th and 11th.

The Harvard men (5-0, 3-0) were as dominant as their female counterparts, defeating Dartmouth (4-6, 0-2 ) 9-0, and winning eight of the nine matches in just three games.

The Crimson was lead by co-captains Deepak Abraham and Shondip Ghosh, playing first and third slot respectively, and junior Peter Karlen playing in the second spot.

While careful to praise Dartmouth for its effort, Shondip was pleased with the ease of the Crimson's win.

"It was a straight forward win for us," Ghosh said.

Looking ahead to the match against Trinity, the Crimson could take over the No. 1 ranking in the country with a win. Currently the Crimson is No. 2 in the nation behind Trinity.

"It's the biggest match of the year," Ghosh said, referring to Saturday's game against Trinity. "The team has put in a tremendous amount of commitment, energy, and passion for this game."

Ghosh feels confident about the match, in large part because of a change he has seen in the Crimson over the last week.

"Coming off the 9-0 win[over Williams], you could really see the team come together," Ghosh said.

The much-anticipated match against Trinity takes place Saturday afternoon on the Barnaby Courts at the Murr Center. The women take the court at noon, while the men are on at two o'clock. The men's next opponent after Trinity is Amherst, which they will play on February 7th.

In Coach Satinderpal Bajwa's second year on the job, Harvard is back to the form it once held for much of the nineties. Coach Bajwa has been instrumental to the teams' growth and the success of the Harvard squash programs.

"The program has evolved into something special," Ghosh said.

The squash team is expecting a large crowd for the matches on Saturday, thanks to the teams' renewed presence at the top of the national rankings after a brief absence the last two years.

There is certainly no love lost between Harvard and Trinity.

On the men's side, Trinity won the United States Squash Racquets Association Team Championships this past weekend while the Crimson's two squads finished sixth and seventh. Trinity also was responsible the last two years for defeating the Crimson in the national title game. This year, the Trinity men are led by All-American Captain Loua Coetzee.

Last year, the Trinity women placed third in the Howe Cup, the championship of women's squash, by narrowly defeating the Crimson in a consolation match. Trinity's top competitor is three-time All-American Janine Thompson, who has the unenviable tasking of facing off against Harvard's Hall on court three this Saturday.