Ranked Foes Prove No Match for Harvard

Football players were not the only victors of Harvard-Yale weekend. No. 4 Harvard men’s squash (2-0, 1-0 Ivy) opened its season this weekend by crushing No. 14 Brown (0-1) on Friday and No. 10 Williams (0-1) yesterday.

“I think it was a very successful weekend,” junior Colin West said. “Some teams are still easing into the season, but being ranked fourth in the country, we definitely had an advantage. It was a great way to start the season.”

“It was good to get the few wins under our belts before we have more of a harder schedule,” captain Verdi DiSesa said.

The Crimson does face a tougher lineup coming up in the next few weeks, having to play Cornell, who it barely beat last season as well as long-time rival Trinity, who has won nine consecutive national championships.

HARVARD 8, WILLIAMS 1

The Crimson’s match against Williams yesterday would offer far more of a challenge than its opening matchup.

“Williams was a tougher team,” West said. “They are strong all the way through their order. Our more experienced guys had straightforward matches. But again, the bottom seeds had closer matches.”

Though more challenged, Harvard still came out with a win, defeating Williams 8-1. West had another impressive showing, obliterating Ephs sophomore Will Gruner 3-0.

Along with West, the third, fourth, fifth, seventh, and ninth seeds all beat their Williams opponents 3-0.

The only loss on the day for the Crimson came in the No. 6 flight, as freshman Will Ahmed fought bitterly in five games against sophomore Christian Henze, but lost 3-2.

Though the Crimson blew Williams away Harvard will have to come out faster and take more advantage of opportunities if it wants to continue its winning streak through its upcoming matches.

“Against Williams, we found out what we need to work on for the next upcoming matches,” DiSesa said.

HARVARD 9, BROWN 0

On Friday, the Crimson opened its regular season against the Bears and swiftly defeated them 9-0, as all nine Harvard players won 3-0.

In the most impressive match of the game, No. 1 West beat sophomore Benjamin Clayman 9-2, 9-0, 9-0. No. 2 DiSesa and No. 3 sophomore Eliot Buchanan also annihilated their opponents. DiSesa beat Brown junior Adam Greenberg 9-2, 9-1, 9-0, while Buchanan beat sophomore Adrian Leanza 9-2, 9-3, 9-0.

The lower seeded matches proved to be the most competitive of the night for the Crimson.

“The lower seeds definitely had some tough close matches,” West said. “People really had to bring their A game.”

In the closest match of the night, Crimson freshman and No. 6 Ahmed beat Bear freshman Brad Thompson 9-1 to open the matchup. But the second game was a nail-biter, as Ahmed barely squeezed out the win, 10-8. The Harvard freshman then rallied in the third game and won 9-6 to take the game.

—Staff writer Alison E. Schumer can be reached at aschumer@fas.harvard.edu.