Harvard's Best Squash Season

Rarely does a team accomplish everything that it expects to in a season. But nearly a week ago, the Harvard men's squash team did just that at the intercollegiate tourney at Princeton, finishing a perfect season with its biggest win in recent history. The victory ended a season that still seems like a dream to some, an ending that showed everyone what a strong team can do.

When the season began, the racquetmen sensed their potential, and started a rigorous preseason training program with an intensity that hadn't existed in previous seasons. "In a lot of ways our team was formed then." Co-Captain John Dinneen remembers. "We really started to realize the team aspect of being willing for each other rather than ourselves."

The closeness between teammates was further encouraged by a 10 day trip to England, where the racquetmen learned to sharpen their skills in seven matches on larger courts, with a soft ball that moved relatively slowly. From the trip, Harvard, a team known for its ability to make trick shots like reverse corners and nicks, learned to perfect its drive shots as well, rounding out its competitive game.

But it wasn't until their first match against a very solid Trinity team, which the racquetmen won 9-0, that Harvard's potential became clear to the players on the team. Filled out with new talent--fresh in Kenton Jernigan and David Segal hadn't played at the intercollegiate level before, and Richard Jackson was a transfer student from Canada--the veteran players weren't sure what turn the team was taking, and the Trinity match told them.

Victories

After that, the season blurred into a series of victories, in which the Crimson was seldom challenged after a surprising victory over Princeton in Jadwin Gym. The Tigers had beaten Harvard twice last year to end Ivy and National title hopes, and the Crimson still worried about depth in a line-up that seemed too top-heavy with power players. But a 7-2 victory over Princeton ended that fear, and the Tigers' 10-year dominance. From there, the Crimson never looked back.

Only after victory in the amateur competition (and Jernigan's singles win over teammate David Boyum) in San Francisco did the squad seem to tire of winning, actually dropping an occasional individual game against less challenging Tufts and Dartmouth.

And there was some regrouping to do before a final contest against a tough Yale team. Sophomore Brad Desaulniers, who had re-joined the Crimson following a year's leave just before its first trip to Princeton, left the squad again for personal reasons. He left a number three spot to fill: Jackson was next in line but an ankle sprain kept him out of action for nearly two weeks. Peter Dinneen was also out with a shoulder injury.

Despite lineup shifts, the Crimson downed Yale for the 21st time in a row, and there was only one challenge left to conquer, the Intercollegiate.

While it would seem to some that so many victories would make a team cocky and lead to an eventual upset, the Crimson apparently never considered that idea. Or if they did, it just made them want to win more.

At Princeton last week, after some initially shaky play--in which both Jim Lubowitz and Boyum were extended to five game contests--the Crimson qualified all six of its competitors for semifinal play. A Harvard player won each division, and the Crimson finished 14 1/2 points ahead of a second-place Tiger team, bringing so much metal back to Cambridge that "we could melt them down and be rich," according to John Dinneen. Boyum, Jernigan and Jackson were also named to the 10-man All-American squad, while Lubowitz and Co-Captain Geordie Lemmon made the second team.

But the Crimson was already rich, with the feeling that comes from doing what it had set out to do. The racquetmen feel most of their success was due to Coach Dave Fish, who, according to Peter Dinneen, "is the best teacher of the game. He's the reason we've done so well; we've all improved because of him." National and Intercollegiate champion. All-American Jernigan adds that the Crimson managed to do so well because they were truly a team. "It's easy to function only as individuals in an individual sport," Jernigan says. "Being a real team is harder to work for, but we did play as a team."

Says Jernigan of next year, "Hopefully we can hold on to everything we have and do it all again."

But most players feel that this season's accomplishments can never be repeated by any team. According to Fish, "It's probably something that will never happen again."