Blumberg’s Perfect Season Not Enough To Bring M. Squash Title

The 2001-2002 season was a wholly unpredictable affair for the Harvard men’s squash team, coupling the injury-induced early exit of co-captain Peter Karlen with breakout performances by freshman Mike Blumberg and sophomore James Bullock.

Still, the end of the year found the Crimson in familiar territory among the nation’s elite. Harvard finished the season third in the country and in the Ivy League standings.

One of the highlights of the year was the undefeated regular season of Blumberg, who moved into the No. 3 slot for the Crimson by season’s end. Blumberg scored the only Harvard victories against Trinity this year, defeating No. 17 Rohan Bhappu (9-5, 9-3, 6-9, 9-7) in the No. 5 slot in Harvard’s 8-1 loss on Feb. 2. His heroics were lauded by Harvard Coach Satinder Bajwa following the match.

“We need a few more Mike Blumbergs,” Bajwa said.

The freshman duplicated his winning ways against the Bantams in the No. 3 slot during the NISRA championships, beating national No. 7 Lefike Ragontse in a grueling five-game match. Blumberg went on to claim the Pool Plate as the winner of the ISA consolation bracket to close out his season. His phenomenal rookie campaign merited him a No. 8 national ranking to finish the year.

Joining him in the top 10 in the nation was Bullock, who battled with junior Dylan Patterson for the No. 1 spot on the team following the loss of Karlen. Bullock is now ranked No. 5 nationally after his stellar sophomore season.

In the 5-4 loss to Princeton on Feb. 10—a defeat which relegated the Crimson to its second Ivy League runner-up finish in three years—Bullock turned in a dominating 3-0 victory over No. 4 David Yik, who was then the defending national champion. Bullock advanced further than any other Crimson player in the main draw of the ISAs, losing in the quarterfinals to Yik.

“James Bullock is certainly the best athlete on the team,” said co-captain David Barry. “He won some big matches last year because he would cover the court so well, but he’s become more focused on the technical part of his game and has made a huge jump this year.”

The Crimson began its season strong, with identical 27-0 blowouts over Brown and Cornell. The team sent three entries to the USSRA Five-Man Championships in December. The Crimson’s top squad made a decent showing, finishing fifth in the tournament.

Following a team-wide training session over winter break in Jamaica that witnessed a defeat of the Jamaican national team, the doubles tandem of Patterson and Karlen became the national collegiate doubles champions at the George Cummings Invitational. It was the second major victory on the national level for the pair, which won the USSRAs two years ago.

Then misfortune struck. Karlen first went down during the U.S. Open qualifiers on Jan. 4 when he sprained a ligament in his foot. The team was able to account for his absence following the break with an 8-1 victory over Williams.

Karlen then returned to action in the No. 4 slot for the 8-1 trouncing of Dartmouth on Jan. 30. But his collegiate career was cut short for good when he sustained an eye injury the week before Penn-Princeton weekend.

Patterson moved into the No. 1 slot to compensate for the loss, but the absence of Karlen—who had entered the season ranked No. 6 in the nation—was a major blow to a team that lost four of its top seven players to graduation last year.

After the Crimson trumped Penn, 8-1, the Tigers were able to pull out a pair of come-from-behind victories at the bottom of the lineup in addition to a win at the top spot to secure the championship.

“Coming in with [Karlen], we were even, but with him having to drop out, we were the underdogs,” Bajwa said. “I think our men should be very proud of how they performed.”

Following a disappointing 6-3 loss to Yale, the team began the NISRAs with another easy win over Williams. But the Trinity squad overpowered the Crimson again, sending Harvard into the consolation bracket.

The Crimson was able to avenge its earlier Yale loss with a 8-1 gutting of the Elis that solidified Harvard’s hold on the No. 3 spot to close out the team-wide competitions.

The end of the season marked the conclusion to the careers of co-captains Karlen and Barry, as well as that of Tomohiro Hamakawa. Hamakawa began his career at Harvard as a walk-on and competed in the No. 8 spot for the Crimson this year.

Though the third-place finish for the team was disappointing by Harvard standards, the emergence of young talent such as Blumberg and Bullock bodes well for next season.

MEN'S SQUASH

RECORD 8-4 (4-2 Ivy, 3rd place)

COACH Satinder Bajwa

CAPTAINS Peter Karlen, David Barry

HIGHLIGHTS Freshman Mike Blumberg goes undefeated and gives Harvard its only two individual wins over Trinity this year. Sophomore James Bullock tops defending national champion David Yik of Princeton.

Karlen and junior Dylan Patterson team up to win the national collegiate doubles title at the George Cummings Invitational.