No. 2 M. Squash Reasserts Dominance With Ivy Title

The No. 2 Harvard men’s squash team may not be able to say that it’s the best team in the country yet, but it can now say with all assurance that it’s the best team in the Ivy League.

With a convincing 6-3 victory over No. 3 Yale (7-2, 5-1 Ivy), Harvard (9-1, 6-0) won its second straight Ivy title and 36th in school history.

The league crown seemed all but a forgone conclusion throughout the early part of the season for the Crimson. Harvard stormed through the first two months of the season without losing a single game and looked as though it would breeze through the Ivy schedule.

But after a disappointing 8-1 loss to No. 1 Trinity on Feb. 3, the Crimson stumbled into No. 5 Princeton the following weekend and narrowly escaped with a 5-4 win. With those two performances, Harvard suddenly appeared very beatable. The Ivy title—never mind the national crown—was a forgone conclusion no more.

But one solid performance later, and all doubts have been put to rest.

“The Ivy championship has always been our first goal,” senior Michael Blumberg said. “Playing like everyone is playing today really means a lot. Everyone seems really fired up about going out there.”

Perhaps the best sign for the Crimson was the renewed dominance of the top of its ladder. For much of the year Harvard was believed to have the strongest top four in the country. After faltering for the past two weeks, the Crimson’s top four once again made a strong case for themselves, taking all four of their matches in straight games.

At No. 1, the showcase match pitting intercollegiate No. 4 sophomore Siddharth Suchde against No. 3 Julian Illingworth also proved to be the clinching match for Harvard.

Illingworth came into Saturday’s match undefeated on the year and had just beaten intercollegiate No. 1 Yasser El Halaby of Princeton. But Suchde was able to frustrate Illingworth quickly, taking the first game 9-5. The next frame was even easier for the sophomore, as he disposed of the No. 3 player in the country in less than five minutes, winning the game 9-0.

In the third, Illingworth looked like he might make the match interesting and jumped out to a quick 8-1 lead. But Suchde fought back and ran off nine consecutive points to win 10-8, and take the match 3-0.

“At 8-1 down I knew it was going to be really unlikely to get back,” said Suchde of his improbable third game comeback. “I just wanted to get a couple of points so that he didn’t get a mental edge in the fourth and begin to feel confident and I [ended] up winning the game...All those 7 a.m. yogas and five days a week team training has finally paid off.”

Suchde was followed in the ladder by intercollegiate No. 2 junior Will Broadbent, who has battled knee and hip problems all season. But if Broadbent was hobbled at all by the injuries, he didn’t show it. The junior put together his most dominating performance of the year, crushing intercollegiate No. 17 Joshua Schwartz 9-7, 9-1, 9-5.

Broadbent controlled the pace of the match masterfully, forcing Schwartz to chase down shots in the corners while Broadbent remained comfortably in control of the center of the court.

“I think that I’m starting to get into last year’s form a little bit,” said Broadbent who lost in the individual championship match last year to El Halaby of Princeton. “I’m controlling the point and controlling the rally...and picking my points of attack.”

With Suchde and Broadbent leading the charge, the rest of the Crimson ladder fell into place perfectly. Intercollegiate No. 9 sophomore Ilan Oren and No. 7 Blumberg won their matches in three games at the No. 3 and 4 spots. Blumberg, who has been the most consistent player for Harvard this season, only dropped seven points in his victory.

Captain Asher Hochberg, playing in his final Ivy contest, played solidly and won at the No. 6 position. And at No. 7, sophomore Garnett Booth gave Harvard its sixth and final victory with a convincing straight game victory that concluded just moments after Suchde had clinched the championship for the Crimson.

Harvard now has two weeks to prepare for the CSA Team Championships that will likely see a rematch between the Crimson and Trinity in the finals.

“The second step of this is to win the national championship,” Broadbent said. “We’re going to have a chance to do that in a couple of weeks.”

—Staff writer David H. Stearns can be reached at stearns@fas.harvard.edu.