Crimson Justifies Ranking with Two Wins

Overcoming challenges is the measure of a true champion, and after this weekend, the No. 1 Harvard women’s squash team (5-0, 3-0 Ivy) has further cemented its status as a true contender for the national title.

The Crimson traveled to No. 2 Trinity on Saturday and took on No. 6 Stanford at home yesterday morning. Coming into the weekend, Harvard was undefeated, winning all of its games by 9-0 margins. The matchups weren’t as easy this weekend, but the results still fell in the Crimson’s favor. Harvard beat Trinity, 7-2, and defeated Stanford the next day by a score of 8-1.

“We never know what outside of the Ivy League is going to bring to us,” Crimson coach Satinder Bajwa said. “Stanford is another example. I think Trinity made us much more ready for Stanford today. Before the matches, I told the girls, ‘Nobody gives you anything, you have to go out and win it.’”

HARVARD 8, STANFORD 1

Just a day after beating the Bantams, the Crimson welcomed Stanford to Barnaby Courts.

The match that first took place on center court was the meeting between sophomore Nirasha Guruge and the Bantams’ Pamela Chua. Guruge had to battle her way through the first sets only to be halted in the second and third sets. Chua kept her cool, even after dropping the fourth game to a defiant but tired Guruge, and won the matchup in the fifth set, 9-11, 13-11, 11-9, 7-11, 11-7. This was the second day in a row that Guruge was forced to go to five games, but luck wasn’t on her side this time around.

“I think Nirasha would win that match next time—it’s not a match that she can’t win,” Bajwa said. “But she played a five-game match yesterday and she had to work very hard to win that match, and today she lost a little edge from having to play yesterday.”

Freshman Laura Gemmell took care of business right after the Guruge-Chua match, and she put away Katy Brewster in three sets, 11-8, 11-3, 11-5.

In another five-set match, junior June Tiong demonstrated her resolve after falling behind 2-0 to Kerrie Sample. The first game was a heartbreaker, 13-11, followed by an 11-8 loss. The third game was another close contest, but this time Tiong proved to be the victor as the game went to 15 points.

Tiong gained momentum as she also took the fourth game, 11-7, leading to a highly-contested fifth game. Sample did not let up easily, but Tiong overcame her opponent’s kill shots to take the win, 14-12.

HARVARD 7, TRINITY 2

The Bantams were not in the mood to let the Crimson blemish their nine-game win streak on Saturday. Harvard was not going to let its chance to solidify its ranking as No. 1 in the nation slip away. But in its toughest match yet, the Crimson also had to adjust to a new environment.

“[Saturday], what we had was different conditions,” Bajwa said. “So when you play against Trinity, they’re the only one with panel courts. Their glass courts are different colors. So the girls had a hard time adjusting to the conditions, so we lost a couple of matches. That’s all. In terms of if they were to play again, every one of them is capable of winning their match at a neutral place.”

Gemmell once again shone at the top position, winning in three straight sets against Pamela Hathway, 11-6, 11-6, 11-7. The rookie has been reliable thus far, winning all of her matches with relative ease.

The three and four spots suffered the first losses of the year for Harvard. Trinity’s Nour Baghat got the best of Tiong, taking all three sets for the win, 11-6, 11-7, 11-7. Junior Alisha Mashruwala couldn’t turn the tide in her favor in the second set, falling to the Bantams’ Tehani Guruge, 11-2, 11-9, 11-6.

Another Guruge who had a stellar day played on Harvard’s side, as the sophomore faced Nayelly Hernandez Perez in a five-game thriller. Like Tiong on Sunday, Guruge came back to win it from two games down, 6-11, 7-11, 12-10, 12-10, 11-6.

“I lost the first two sets, and in the third set I was match ball down,” Guruge said. “I was still able to come back and it was a great match for me.”

The top-ranked Crimson will face Ivy League rivals Penn and Princeton next weekend.

—Staff writer Brian A. Campos can be reached at bcampos@fas.harvard.edu.