ATHLETE OF THE WEEK: Junior Carries Squash in Late Comeback

The ball was in Rochester’s court.

Up 4-3 on the No. 4 Harvard men’s squash team, the No. 5 Yellowjackets needed to win only one more match to seal the victory in the best-of-nine contest Saturday at the Barnaby courts. But the Crimson saved its best for last, as junior Colin West clinched a Harvard comeback by winning the deciding match, a 9-0, 9-0, 9-5 blowout of Rochester’s top-seeded player Jim Bristow—a first team All-America selection last year.

“Colin made a masterful performance where he just shut this guy out,” coach Satinder Bajwa said. “He did it so convincingly and so well…that it was a pleasure to see.”

West’s margin of victory, while impressive, was nothing out of the ordinary for the Crimson’s own first team All-American, who is undefeated on the year. The two-time All-Ivy selection has thoroughly dominated his opposition, outscoring his six opponents by a combined total of 162-17.

West is adding on to what is already an impressive collegiate career. He took Ivy League Rookie of the Year with a 10-1 record his freshman year and advanced to the national quarterfinals of the CSA Individual Championships as a sophomore.

But as an upperclassman, West has taken his game up another notch, managing to top his start of four straight 3-0 match victories last season with a current streak of six.

Although strength training and fitness work during the off-season has certainly helped, he credits strides made in squash’s mental aspects for his stellar play thus far.

“I’ve improved a lot not just in my game, but also my attitude on the court has gotten a lot better,” West said.

His teammates and coach couldn’t agree more, citing his increased maturity and composure.

“In the past couple of years, he has played as an all-out athlete,” Bajwa said. “I think now he is playing as a player.”

West’s latest big win could not have come at a more opportune time. It took a gutty performance from Harvard captain Verdi DiSesa to equalize the match at four-all, setting the stage for a matchup betweem West, the country’s fourth-ranked player and sixth-ranked player.

“He always warms up by himself, but you could see on his face that he was really determined and ready to play,” junior Frank Cohen said.

Walking onto the court with the match on the line was not a familiar experience for West, since the final outcome typically has already been decided by the time he plays.

“It was definitely nerve-wracking, but that’s what you play for,” West said.

With all eyes on the top two players, it was the one wearing crimson who came up big. Seemingly unnerved by the gravity of the situation, West came out firing, holding his opponent scoreless in the first two games.

By the time his opponent recovered from the start, the match was already well in hand.

“I would call it one of his greatest wins,” Bajwa said. “It’s very easy to not look at it as a great match, because he made it look so easy. But it wasn’t easy.”

—Staff writer Dennis J. Zheng can be reached at dzheng@fas.harvard.edu.