Harvard Men’s Squash Places Sixth at National Championship

The No. 6 Harvard Men’s squash team (10-7, 3-3 Ivy) placed sixth in the Potter Cup after losing 5-4 to No. 8 Columbia (9-8, 2-4) in the fifth place match.

Coming into the weekend looking to prove itself after an injury-filled regular season, the Crimson opened with a throttling 9-0 win against No. 11 Dartmouth (7-10, 0-6), then fell into the consolation bracket after dropping a tight 5-4 match to No. 3 Yale (10-3, 4-2). Harvard then picked up a 6-3 win over No. 7 Drexel (11-9) to return to the fifth place match for the second straight season.

Harvard 9, Dartmouth 0

“It was always about your team first, and the score will take care of itself,” said captain Tate Harms on the team’s mindset entering the tournament.

Harvard’s quest for the Potter Cup began in the first round against another Ivy League foe in the Big Green, whom the Crimson had bested 8-1 earlier in the season.

Captain David Costales began the scoring early for Harvard. Costales dropped the first game, 12-10, to Christian Shah, but rattled off three dominant wins to take the victory at the one seed. Sophomore walk-on Marcus Lee followed suit. Lee won 3-1 at the eight spot, outlasting Rana Thakkar in a fifty minute battle.

Jacob Lin continued the pattern of four game matches, taking down Quintin Campbell. On court for over an hour, Lin’s superior fitness and mental game were too much for Campbell to withstand.

The second wave started even stronger for Harvard. Playing at No. 2, Junior Denis Gilevsky eviscerated William Aube in less than half an hour. Aube never got into any kind of rhythm, letting Gilevsky cruise to the victory. At the No. 5 spot, senior Connor Stoltz’s experience shined. Having played only one match all season in the fifth position, Stoltz’s game peaked at the right time and he took down Callan Venkatesan in 4 decisive games.

Just one win away from clinching a victory, senior Neel Joshi was not wasting any time. On and off court in just 22 minutes, Joshi sent Ekam Singh packing in three quick games. Singh scored just nine points in total, fewer than the 11 that Joshi scored to win each individual game.

The Crimson had already won the match, but freshman Segav Rome did not fail to put on a good show against Dartmouth's Felix Feldman. Rome won the first two games, but lost the next two by only two points each. Winning the fifth game, Rome improved the Crimson’s chances of a sweep.

The last two matches sealed the deal on a Harvard sweep. First, sophomore Louis Murray picked up his first Potter Cup victory over Dartmouth’s Warren Klein in three. Finally, Harms pulled off a 3-1 win, besting Brandon Wang. With a pretty 11-0 final game, he 2tied a bow on the match and sent the Big Green home without a win for the day.

Harvard 4, Yale 5

Harvard’s matchup against the Bulldogs was a chance to avenge its elimination at Yale’s hands from the Potter Cup last year.

Yale jumped out to an early lead on the backs of its five and nine players. Rohan Gondi took Stoltz to work, sending him off court in three quick games. Gondi’s unorthodox play style, centered around taking the ball to the front of the court, threw Stoltz off balance and made the attritional squash that Stoltz likes to play nearly impossible to execute.

Lee also lost in three, but with a completely different flavor to the match. Lee’s opponent, Merritt Wurts, dominated the first two games. However, Lee left everything on the court in the third, forcing Wurts to battle through 4 tiebreaks before finally losing out.

Joshi put the Crimson on the board, beating Lachlan Sutton in four games. Sutton won the first, but Joshi found another gear after that. He won the second game 11-2, and never looked back. The win was key for the Crimson stopping the Bulldogs from stealing a 3-0 lead.

At the eight seed, sophomore Omar Azzam gave it his all against Nikhil Ismail. Coming back from a major wrist injury that required surgery in the offseason, Azzam was playing just his second match of the season. A gutsy win in the second game tied the match at one all, but Ismail was too much in the end.

The most pivotal match of the day was yet to be completed. Yale freshman Rishi Srivastava was locked into a life or death battle with Harms. Harms jumped out to a 2-0 lead, thanks to a 13-11 win in the second game that put the match within reach. However, Srivastava simply refused to lose, winning the next three games by an average of nearly 7 points. The reverse sweep from Srivastava put Yale up 4-1, and the entire momentum of the match spun around.

The Crimson scraped back a win courtesy of a massive performance from Costales against Tad Carney. Carney opened strong, winning the first game 11-4. However, Costales swept the next three games, keeping the Crimson hopes alive.

However, one win wouldn’t be enough to send Harvard to the semifinals. Yale’s seven seed, Max Forster, held out just long enough to beat Rome. Every game was long and tightly contested, but Forster’s three extra years of experience on the college squash circuit helped him take the key win.

The Crimson were able to walk away with the two consolation matches. At the two positions, Gileviskiy pulled out a decisive victory against Arav Bhagwati, winning his final game 11-1. To close the day, Lin defeated Maxwell Orr in an exciting back a fourth, with the two going match for match, back and forth until Lin came out on top with a win in the fifth.

Despite the loss, Harms had nothing but praise for the team.

“The fact that we're actually a stronger team than last year with all this stuff going on, made me pretty proud of the team,” he said.

Harvard 6, Drexel 3

Harvard looked to keep its weekend going against the Dragons, whom they had also defeated just a month prior.

Opening the scoring was Harms at six, defeating Sean Murphy. Following that up was Rome, who got his second win of the weekend against Tavneet Singh Mundra. Playing in the 7th seed, Rome grinded out a 50 minute match that gave Harvard a 3-0 lead on the day. Stoltz brought the Crimson even closer to the win after his opponent, Dumitru Goian, had to retire in the middle of the second game.

Shomari Wiltshire would put the Dragons on the board for the first time all day. He bested Murray in 3 games, controlling the pace of the rally. That allowed Costales to come in and clinch the win, beating Guido Lindner. Although it was just three games, the margins were tight in each one, yet Costales was always able to close it out.

Even with the win secured for Harvard, the Dragons would not back down. Starting off the final wave, Drexel’s Fritiof Jacobsen defeated Lin in a 3-0 victory. At the 3 position, Joshi was able to respond with a 3-0 sweep of his own over Youssef Bastawy. Finally, the Dragons’ Marcus Lee secured two 12-10 victories over Lee

With this victory, the Crimson were sent to compete in the fifth place game of the Potter cup, against an Ivy League foe: the Columbia Lions.

Harvard 4, Columbia 5

Harvard’s weekend came to an end against another familiar face in the Lions, as Columbia was able to turn a 5-4 loss during the regular season into a 5-4 win at nationals.

The top three players for the Crimson all went on court and got the job done, with varying degrees of fear for the fans watching on. Costales was taken to the brink by Shaurya Bawa, falling behind 2-0 before reverse sweeping Bawa over the next three games. Gilevsky’s match went much quicker, but was not without a scare in the third game. After cruising through the first two games, Yusuf Sheikh fought back and forced Gilevsky to tiebreaks before eventually falling 14-12. Finally, Joshi ended his Harvard squash career with yet another dominant win, this time over Arhan Chandra. On and off court in 3 games, Joshi was a key factor in Harvard having a chance at victory.

Seeds four through six did not go as smoothly for the Crimson. At the four spot, Lin came out strong, winning his first game against Franklyn Smith. Smith then retaliated with an equally admirable performance in match two, and, after trading two more long matches, Smith bested Lin in the final match.

Columbia’s Imad Athar sealed the deal even sooner. Despite sending the first match two tiebreaks and dropping the second match 3-11, Athar and the Lions were able to secure a 3-1 win at the five position. Likewise, Zach Nam defeated Harms 3-0, showcasing the Lions’ strength in the middle seeds.

Finally, the bottom of the ladder also broke Columbia’s way. Rome picked up a win at 7 over Thomas Soltanian in 4 games. Similarly, each game was close, but Rome played more comfortably as the match progressed.

Playing in the eight seed was Lee, who had a true marathon match against Laszlo Godde. On court for over 70 minutes total, and more than half an hour straight during a 21-19 third game, Lee and Godde truly pushed their lungs and legs beyond any reasonable limit. After playing as many points in the third game as some people play in an entire match, Lee was unable to hang on in the fourth, giving Columbia a critical boost. The final match on the docket was Murray playing against Paarth Ambani at nine. Despite a strong start from Murray that saw him take the first game 11-4, Ambani was able to recover and win the next three games.

Despite graduating, Harms is confident about the future of the team, despite losing four players to graduation.

“And I think it's important they realize they’re in a very good spot for next year,” he added.

—Staff writer Daniel Hochberg can be reached at daniel.hochberg@thecrimson.com.