Whitman, Bullock Rejoin Shorthanded M. Squash

The revolving door that has been the No. 3 Harvard men’s squash lineup this season showed no signs of slowing down last night. Yet the Crimson (3-0, 2-0 Ivy) kept rolling, dropping only two games en route to a 9-0 victory over No. 8 Williams.

Junior Ziggy Whitman saw his first action of the season, while his classmate James Bullock, the intercollegiate No. 5, returned after missing time with a groin injury.

But as the door was ushering Whitman and Bullock in, it was pushing three sophomores towards the exit. Asher Hochberg sat on the sidelines nursing a sore back, while Indrek Vainu and Gaurav Yadav had yet to arrive back in Cambridge after spending winter break at home in Estonia and India, respectively.

A travel snafu also cost the Ephs (1-2) their top player, intercollegiate No. 12 Parth Doshi, whose return flight from his home in India was delayed by a storm.

As a result, Harvard freshman No. 1 Will Broadbent, who won the George Cummings Cup at the University Club of New York over winter break, played Williams’ regular No. 2, Max Montgelas.

Broadbent, who started slowly in the Crimson’s season-opening win over Brown, put himself through a vigorous warm-up before his match. Afterward, he conceded that he may have burned too much energy before taking the court.

Indeed, Broadbent came out “flat and rusty.” Perhaps feeling he had nothing to lose, Montgelas attacked Broadbent from the outset.

By keeping points short, he kept the Harvard rookie on his heels in jumping out to a 6-5 lead.

“I felt like I was banging the ball, rather than measuring my shot,” Broadbent said. “I basically told myself to calm down and play at my pace.”

Broadbent succeeded in collecting himself, winning four consecutive points to take the first game, and ultimately cruised to a 9-6, 9-3, 9-2 victory.

Afterward, Broadbent commented on Montgelas’ early aggressiveness.

“That’s basically hit-or-miss,” he said. “In the long run, that’s not going to win you the match.”

More important for the Crimson than Broadbent’s win, though, were the successful returns of Bullock and Whitman.

Bullock, playing No. 2, took the first five points of his match and defeated Dan Bishop 9-2, 9-1, 9-3.

But Whitman, at No. 6, was more of a concern, as he had only one day of practice under his belt after an eight-week layoff.

The junior had been sidelined by tendonitis of his hip flexor and adductor tendon stemming from a groin injury he suffered as a senior in high school that has plagued him since.

“It will never feel normal again, but it’s not injured,” Whitman said. “You just have to learn to deal with that fact that it will never feel normal again.”

In fact, Whitman has come to see the injury as a blessing in disguise.

“I’ve always won matches just because I’m faster and fitter than other people,” Whitman said. “Having an injury like this, playing a long match is a liability, so I need to do more work with my racket and less with my legs.”

Against Williams, Whitman admitted he was “extremely nervous.”

It didn’t show, though, as Whitman jumped out to an early lead in all three of his games before his concentration began to wane. Even so, he pulled out a 9-4, 9-6, 9-1 victory.

Now, Harvard has three weeks off before it plays host to Dartmouth on Jan. 29. The Crimson will spend intersession training in Toronto, but its main focus for the rest of the month will be making sure its full lineup will be available when it faces the Big Green.

—Staff writer Alan G. Ginsberg can be reached at aginsber@fas.harvard.edu.