Men's Squash Can't Overcome Princeton

Following the lone blemish on the Harvard men’s squash team’s 2007 schedule—a 5-4 setback last Wednesday against perennial powerhouse Trinity—the focus shifted towards the team’s next preseason goal of winning the Ivy League crown.

But an injury on Saturday left a dark cloud over the Crimson’s title chances entering a road tilt Princeton on Sunday, and the Tigers took advantage, ruining an otherwise clean Harvard conference slate for the second year in a row.

Now, the team’s most immediate goal is the league’s finale at home against Yale on Wednesday.

“We’re going to do some serious training and make some adjustments,” captain Ilan Oren said. “Hopefully we can pull it all together.”

PRINCETON 6, HARVARD 3

Last year saw the Crimson drop the Ivy finale at home against Princeton, resulting in a three-way tie for first place along with Yale. This year, both teams entered the league’s biggest match undefeated, and the Tigers walked away with a 6-3 win and the league championship.

For Harvard, though, the early goings of the match foreshadowed a different outcome, as all three of the team’s wins came to start the match.

Oren won 3-1 at No. 2 for Harvard, while No. 1 Siddarth Suchde struggled because of an ankle injury suffered the previous day. No. 4 freshman Colin West notched a victory for the Crimson, and the last Harvard win came in the form of a 3-2 comeback at No. 8 from sophomore Verdi DiSesa.

“We had a few matches here and there that didn’t go our way, so it was disappointing,” West said.

Without Suchde, those matches—the kind that oftentimes end up going the way of the Crimson—fell in Princeton’s favor.

“Sidd is usually a guaranteed win for us, and we can count on him every time,” West said. “Without him, it really put the pressure on all the other guys.”

The loss all but concludes the final Ivy season for the team’s seniors, serving as the second straight bitter end to a conference schedule that had been relatively sweet prior to last year.

“The seniors on the team, we really wanted to make it happen,” Oren said.

They may still have a chance to do just that.

“We might end up playing them again at Nationals,” he said, “and we still believe that we can beat them.”

HARVARD 6, PENN 3

The Crimson took out its post-Trinity frustration against Penn on Saturday, earning a 6-3 win over the Quakers.

The team also left, however, with a mound of trepidation, after seeing Suchde retire due to injury after the first game against Penn’s Gilly Lane. It was the first loss of the season for the No. 1 senior, in a match that also saw No. 6 senior Garnett Booth lose for the first time this year.

“Sidd rolled his ankle midway through the first game and tried to play through,” Oren said. “Then he basically gave up the first game and decided to withdraw. Unfortunately, it was bad timing for us.”

Oren paced Harvard in the win, holding down the No. 2 spot with a 10-8, 9-0, 9-6 victory.

“We knew this was going to be an easier match than Princeton or the one against Trinity, so we wanted to use it as preparation for Princeton,” Oren said. “Most of the guys played pretty well, after we got rid of a little bit of our tiredness from the bus ride.”

Harvard’s other loss in the match came at No. 9, where Quaker freshman Christopher Thompson beat senior Todd Ostrow by a 9-0, 9-0, 9-3 count.

The team’s win, coupled with Princeton’s 9-0 thumping of Dartmouth on Saturday, set the stage for the unofficial Ivy League championship game on Sunday.

“We were very confident going into Penn,” West said. “I think everyone felt like we were the stronger team.”

—Staff writer Malcom A. Glenn can be reached at mglenn@fas.harvard.edu.