Harvard Falls to Best in Country

Though the score may not reflect it, the No. 5 Harvard men’s squash team (5-2. 2-1 Ivy) put up a hard-fought battle against longtime-undefeated No. 1 Trinity (11-0). The Crimson fell, 8-1, to the Bantams at the Barnaby Courts last night.

“The score was 8-1, but it doesn’t really reflect that performance,” sophomore Eliot Buchanan said.

“We came out to play,” he added. “Everybody played tough and it has made us mentally stronger for the next matches coming up.”

Two of the night’s most exciting matches came from junior No. 1 seed Colin West and No. 4 seed Buchanan.

West was matched against Trinity senior Gustav Detter. West took the first two games, 10-8 and 9-4, but Detter battled back to win the third game, 2-9.

But West regained control by crushing Detter in the final game of the match, 9-2.

Before this match, Detter was ranked second in the country, while West was ranked fourth. By beating the Swedish native, West will move to either first or second in the country. The win extends West’s undefeated record on the season to 7-0.

“This was a real big one for me,” West said. “In college squash, you get very few shots to play the top guys. I get one chance in the year; you have to perform on the day. I think this might have been the best I have ever played.”

The other close match of the night came from Buchanan. Though he lost his match, 3-1, Buchanan put up an impressive showing against Bantam sophomore Randy Lim. Besides West, Buchanan was the only Crimson player to win a match on the night.

Buchanan especially had to dig deep because he was coming back from injuries suffered during the fall.

“I felt pretty good,” Buchanan said. “I was sick in December and this was my first real test. It was not a bad start to get a game off against my opponent.”

The rest of the Crimson’s seeded players lost to their Trinity counterparts, 3-0, but many of the matches were close.

In one of the strongest matches of the night, No. 8 freshman Will Ahmed battled hard against Trinity opponent Rushabh Vora but fell in three games, 3-9, 7-9, 2-9.

In his first two games, No. 6 sophomore Richard Hill put up a good fight against Bantam sophomore Andres Vargas, only losing 6-9 and 5-9, but in the third game Vargas took Hill, 9-0.

Coming into the match, the Crimson knew it would have an uphill battle. For the past decade, Trinity has been a powerhouse.

The Bantams have the longest winning streak—195 consecutive games—of any college team in any intercollegiate sport.

The last time the Crimson had a victory over Trinity was in 1998.

Harvard came into the game with confidence. Quickly leaving behind its upset against Cornell on Dec. 6, the Crimson had won its past two contests against Western Ontario, 7-2, and Rochester, 5-4.

“The coaches and [captain Verdi DiSesa] said you can’t come into the game thinking you are going to lose,” West said. “We came in thinking we could genuinely win, which was a tough task considering who the opponent was.”

As for what the team could improve upon, according to Harvard coach Satinder Bajwa, the team just needs to play more.

“Match practice is what we need,” Bajwa said. “We are not lacking hard work, improvement, courage, and commitment.”

Coming up, the Crimson is facing a tough schedule of matches that will surely be close.

Harvard will be on the road for its next two games against Penn on Feb. 7 and Princeton on Feb. 8. Though Harvard has an edge over these two teams, the matches are not foregone conclusions.

“We should be favored against Penn,” West said. “But you never know because in the Ancient Eight everyone is very close. The pressure is on us.”

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