Men's Squash Wins Eighth Consecutive National Title

For the first time in eight years there was an element other than pure domination involved in the Harvard men's squash team's hunt for the national championship--revenge.

On Feb. 7, something happened to Harvard (11-1, 6-0 Ivy) that had not occurred since 1992--it lost a match. The Crimson saw its 89-match winning streak, the longest in the nation, come to an end at the hands of the Trinity Bantams, 6-3. So Harvard entered the National Intercollegiate Squash Racquet's Association (NISRA) Team Championship as the No. 2 seed with a two-fold goal--keep its dynasty alive and avenge its loss to Trinity.

"I know losing left no one with a good feeling," said sophomore No. 9 Eric Lauer after the regular-season Trinity match. "Most of us are angry and ready to get back to work. I think in the long run it will make us work even harder."

The Crimson showed early on at the Championship that its hard work just might pay off, routing Denison, 9-0, and defeating a strong Amherst team, 6-3. Those two victories set up the long-anticipated rematch with the Bantams, but this time around the national crown would be the victor's spoils.

Things did not start well for Harvard, as Trinity took the first two of the nine matches to take an early lead. But the Crimson responded with four consecutive wins by freshman No. 6 Andrew Merrill (3-2), freshman No. 4 Deepak Abraham (3-1), Lauer (3-1) and a determined captain No. 1 Daniel Ezra (3-0) who had been shut out by his opponent, defending national champion sophomore Marcus Cowie, earlier in the year.

Trinity refused to go gently into that good night, however, taking victories at No. 5 and No. 7 to knot the score at 4-4 and set up a decisive ninth match to decide the national champion. Harvard's hopes rested on the shoulders of sophomore No. 3 Tim Wyant who wasted no time in removing all doubt as to the outcome.

Wyant won a straight-game, 3-0 match to earn the Crimson a 5-4 victory and its eighth consecutive Potter Trophy as national champions. It is Harvard's 14th national title in 16 years.

Let the dynasty reign.

"It was very exciting," Wyant said. "I was nervous, but all my teammates were cheering, and I had strong support."

"It was understandable that people felt we were No. 2 going in, but we tried to approach the match with confidence enough that we wouldn't be intimidated," he said.

The rest of Harvard's season saw the Crimson exhibit the same dominant level of play it has shown throughout the decade. Harvard kicked off the year with 9-0 shutout victories over Ivy League rivals Cornell and Brown before taking first place at the United States Squash Racquet's Association (USSRA) Team Championships.

Two more shutouts, of Williams and Penn, led Harvard into its closest Ivy match of the year, a 6-3 win over Princeton at home. Following an 8-1 drubbing of Dartmouth that kept its record perfect at 6-0, Harvard traveled to Trinity knowing that it was in for its biggest test of the decade.

With the homecourt advantage, the Bantams seemed to dominate the Crimson, earning victories in four of the first five courts--only Wyant won his match--en route to the 6-3 win. Harvard's other two victories came from Merrill and junior captain-elect David Beitchman. If only the two squads had known then how the national title match would finish just two weeks later.

"We always knew that Trinity would be our toughest competition," Merrill said, "but having played them earlier, we knew what we had to do to beat them [at Nationals]."

Record: 11-1, 6-0 Ivy

Coach: Bill Doyle

Highlights: Wins eighth consecutive national championship.

Seniors: Richard Bilimoria, Jeff Blumberg, Daniel Ezra

Harvard closed out its regular season with a 7-2 victory at Amherst and a 6-3 defeat of Yale. With a perfect Ivy record and the loss to Trinity its only blemish in over five years, the Crimson entered the NISRA Team Championship hungry for the revenge it eventually enacted.

"It came down to who wanted it more, and I think we proved it was us," Ezra said. "Trinity is our nemesis, so it was like killing a demon."

Revenge was the theme once again one week later at the NISRA Individual Championship, but this time Harvard found itself on the losing end. Ezra, the 1996 national champion, entered the weekend as the top seed with Cowie going in as No. 2. As expected both players advanced to the championship match where Cowie had the season's last laugh, posting a 3-1 victory over Ezra to capture his second consecutive national title.

"Cowie definitely picked up some things from [the team nationals]," said Ezra following his loss. "He's a great player and deserves the win. It was a tough loss, but we still had a very successful year."

Successful may be an understatement. In capturing its eighth consecutive national title this year, Harvard had to show the true perseverance of a championship team by overcoming the unfamiliar adversity of being an underdog.

Harvard graduates three of its top nine today, including Ezra, No. 2 Rishaad Bilimoria and No. 5 Jeff Blumberg, so the challenge now becomes even greater.

But the Crimson's players have already endured the toughest test of their collegiate careers, that of adjusting to not being the clear-cut favorite. The team proved that their perennial excellence extends to the highest levels by closing their season in the same manner that they have for 14 of the last 16 years--by earning the title of nation's best.