Mendez's Comeback Victory Gives No. 1 Women's Squash 5-4 Win

The Harvard women’s squash team was down to its final point—twice. But with its undefeated record and No. 1 national ranking on the line, the Crimson came back in dramatic fashion, capturing a 5-4 win over No. 4 Princeton (5-2, 1-2 Ivy) Sunday afternoon at the Barnaby Courts.

The hero of the match was not 2010 CSA Individual Champion Laura Gemmell, nor 2010 World Junior Champion Amanda Sobhy; it was freshman Haley Mendez. With the match knotted at four individual victories apiece, Mendez squared off against Princeton’s Lexi Saunders in the final and deciding matchup.

And early on, it looked like the Crimson (9-0, 3-0) was headed toward its first loss since last winter when Harvard fell to Yale at the CSA Team Championships. The rookie dropped the first two games and then fell behind, 10-9 and 11-10, in the third. But Mendez battled back to capture the 14-12 win in the third and then won decisively in the fourth and fifth games (11-3 and 11-2, respectively) to give the Crimson its ninth straight team victory.

Despite playing in just the ninth match of her collegiate career, Mendez was happy to be the one on the court with the match on the line.

“I definitely get 10 times more nervous watching everyone else play,” the rookie said. “Going into it, I just told myself that I’m playing and it matters and this is the fun part; this is why I play squash. So that kept me calm.”

Also helping to ease Mendez’s nerves was the fact that she had been in a similar position just this past summer. As a member of the U.S. squad that competed at the 2011 World Junior Championships held at Harvard this past July, Mendez won the deciding match for the Americans in their semifinal matchup with India.

“I was grateful that I had been through [a similar situation] once actually,” Mendez said.

Even so, Mendez fell behind early. She dropped a tight first game, 11-9, and then blew a 4-1 lead in the second, falling 11-13. Mendez and Saunders went back and forth in the third with the Princeton sophomore eventually grabbing match point, 10-9. Mendez answered with a drop shot to even the score, but she fell behind when Saunders was awarded a stroke.

Once again, Mendez evened the score, landing a drop shot in the left corner. After both players hit tin on the next two points, Mendez closed out the game, hitting back-to-back winners to take the game, 14-12.

With momentum on her side, Mendez jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the fourth and never looked back, taking the game, 11-3.

The deciding game was all Mendez. After dropping the first point, she took the next eight, eventually winning, 11-2.

During the ensuing celebration, Mendez was told by one of her teammates that she had nearly “given her a heart attack.”

“[Watching Mendez’s match] was really nerve-racking; I was pretty much biting my nails the whole time,” said Sobhy, one of Mendez’s teammates at the 2011 World Junior Championships. “I believed in her. She was on my team over the summer and she was the clinching match for us in the team event, so I knew that she could come back and do it.”

Sobhy turned in a remarkable performance of her own on Sunday, but in a very different sense. Rather than coming back in dramatic fashion, Sobhy, playing at the No. 1 spot, made quick work of Princeton’s two-time All American Julie Cerullo, winning, 3-0 (11-6, 11-3, 11-4). In fact, the highly touted rookie won the first games so convincingly that much of the crowd that had gathered around the glass court to watch the matchup had left to watch other games.

“She’s a good player, so it was a good match and I worked hard,” said Sobhy, who was playing in just her second match with the Crimson after missing the first seven due to eligibility concerns. “I’m just happy I played well and pretty much dominated. I was in control, so I was happy about it.”

In addition to the wins from Sobhy at the No.1 spot and Mendez at the No. 4 spot, the Crimson also received victories from No. 2 Gemmell, No. 5 Natasha Kingshott, and No. 7 Sarah Mumanachit.

Gemmell, playing at the No. 2 spot for just the second time in her career, picked up Harvard’s first win, besting Katherine Giovinazzo, 3-0 (11-4, 11-5, 11-3). Kingshott and Mumanachit followed with 3-1 wins to even the match at 4-4, setting up the dramatic finale between Mendez and Saunders.

“That was an unbelievable match,” Crimson coach Mike Way said. “For those individuals that really got the job done, it just feels so good mentally. The struggle is always between the ears.”

—Staff writer Martin Kessler can be reached at martin.kessler@college.harvard.edu.