Squash Teams Kick Off Season At Ivy Scrimmages

The 2015-2016 season marks a fresh start for the Harvard men’s and women’s squash teams. The men’s side graduated three of its seniors from last year, while the women’s team lost five, including star Amanda Sobhy ’15, who led the team to a championship last season.

This year, the seniors and juniors on the team look to collectively step up, and the time to do so arrived this weekend at the annual preseason Ivy Scrimmages in New Haven, Conn.

Both teams were able to gauge their progress after participating in the event, which was hosted by Yale. The men’s side reached and lost a hard-fought finals match to Yale, 5-4, while the women’s side also reached the finals but lost to Penn, 7-2.

“We got to the finals, which means a lot of the guys played pretty well for the first two rounds,” senior Peter Janulis said. “The Ivy scrimmages are always just a time to assess how participants in the Ivy League are doing, and it’s not a cause for concern if there are a few missteps as we play.”

Janulis provides experience to a team that features eight freshmen and sophomores. He went 4-0 as a freshman but sat out a large portion of his junior year.

“Generally speaking, we were forced to play with a few injuries, and kids are just coming back to peak performance,” Janulis added. “It was definitely closely fought match—a lot of our team played well. Kids are coming back on the ladder.”

Providing a consolation for the loss in the finals were the encouraging first two rounds of the scrimmages for Harvard. The Crimson swept Brown 9-0 in the quarterfinals, and easily handled Penn 8-1 in the semifinals.

“The entire team played very strongly,” junior captain Devin McLaughlin said, adding that he was impressed by the play of the freshmen.

Janulis emphasized the importance of getting the freshmen’s feet wet and saw encouraging signs in how they responded.

“It was definitely a good opportunity to acclimate the freshman,” Janulis said. “A lot of them haven’t played in a U.S. collegiate setting. We ended up seeing really good stuff from the freshmen in particular, which has really good implications for how they’ll perform later. Sometimes kids get freaked out by the whole environment, but our guys played some pretty phenomenal squash.”

The play of its respective freshmen will be a key to both teams going forward.

“It’s the first time the freshmen are competing,” sophomore Alyssa Mehta said. “Both freshmen competed this weekend, and they both did a very good job.”

Although it lost to the Penn women’s team in the finals, the women can find positives in its 9-0 sweeps of Brown and Yale in the quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively.

“We’re excited to finally off the season,” sophomore Sue Ann Yong said. “Scrimmages are always nice to check up on how other teams are looking, and more importantly, checking on how we’re looking.”

The Harvard women’s team closed out last season with a 10-match winning streak, but things may not be so easy this year. The team graduated three players off of last year’s top nine, and according to Yong, the loss of the seniors may have played a factor in the loss to Penn.

“We had a good weekend, but there’s definitely a lot to work on,” McLaughlin said after the tournament. “We’ve got to sharpen up for sure, everyone’s got to get fitter. Fortunately, we have a lot of time to improve and get up to par.”