Late Push Translates To Big Victory

In the most exciting match of the season thus far, the No. 4 Harvard men’s squash team came from behind to beat No. 5 Rochester 5-4 Saturday at the Barnaby Courts.

“I think it was a huge win,” junior Frank Cohen said. “Especially for the guys at the top, especially Verdi who had a huge win, but it was a great victory for the team.”

Saturday’s victory was even sweeter given that the Crimson was able to give Rochester its first loss after the Yellowjackets started out the season an undefeated 2-0.

All hope seemed lost towards the end of the match. The Crimson was down 4-3, and captain Verdi DiSesa was fighting an uphill battle against Hameed Ahmed, who was Second Team All-American and ranked No. 8 in the country. Ahmed took the first two games 9-3, 9-3, but DiSesa rallied and narrowly won the next three games 9-5, 10-8, and 9-4.

“He played really well,” junior Alex Lavoie said. “He dug in really hard. He knew his opponent was really talented going in. He used his skill and his conditioning really well.”

Now the Crimson was tied with the Yellowjackets 4-4, and the No. 1 seed was set to play. For Harvard, that player was Colin West, who has been flawless so far this season, not losing a match to date. His faceoff against Rochester No. 1 seed Jim Bristow would be no different. It seemed like Bristow, who was a First Team All-American, was not going to be an easy opponent. But West swiftly defeated him 9-0, 9-0, 9-5 to secure a Crimson victory.

Things were looking good for the Crimson in the first round of games. The third, sixth, and ninth seeds all defeated their Rochester opponents. Senior Niko Hrdy won 3-2, sophomore J. Reed Endresen won 3-1, and freshman Will Ahmed shut his opponent out 3-0.

But in the second round of matches, Rochester proved it was not going down without a fight. The fourth, fifth, seventh, and eighth seeds all lost to their Yellowjacket opponents. Bolstered by the support of the home crowd, West and DiSesa played Harvard to the narrow win.

“The crowd was great [Saturday],” Lavoie said. “They really got us pumped up and excited.”

Harvard was especially thirsty for a win this weekend, coming off of a split in last weekend’s doubleheader. After defeating Western Ontario 7-2, the team lost to Ancient Eight rival Cornell 6-3.

“We were really fired up going into the match,” Lavoie said. “We knew it was going to be close, and coming off the Cornell loss, we really wanted a victory.”

Though the Crimson regained momentum with the win, there is still much training to be done for Harvard to prepare itself for its toughest competition of the year against Trinity after the break—the Bantams haven’t lost in over a decade.

“There are certain areas we can always improve on, such as conditioning and staying in shape,” Lavoie said. “Also, we have to make sure everyone stays healthy.”

“With Trinity, anything is possible,” Cohen said. “We are going to train hard over break, and if we stay focused, we definitely have a shot at beating them.”

—Staff writer Alison E. Schumer can be reached at schumer@fas.harvard.edu.