No. 3 Men's Squash Captures Ivy League Title

The No. 3 Harvard men’s squash team (8-2, 7-0 Ivy) competed against two Ivy League rivals this weekend in the final conference games to determine the Ivy League championship title.

After losing two matches early in this season, the perfect squash season from 2013-14 seemed to lose its significance. However, since then, the Crimson has won eight consecutive contests.

“I think it was actually the two losses that kick-started the season for us,” sophomore Devon McLaughlin said. “We didn’t lose a single match last year, and I think we went in a little overconfident. Once we lost those, we had a meeting about it, and everyone needed to be more prepared and focus more. After J-term, everyone kind of came together as a team and feeling a lot stronger.”

Last weekend, Harvard defeated Columbia in an upset that placed the Crimson in a promising position to claim the Ivy title. This weekend, Harvard toppled the team favored for the title, in order to claim the 40th Ivy championship title.

HARVARD 9, BROWN 0

Brown (5-8, 0-7) does not have the lineup strength of the Crimson, as its record registers no conference wins up to this point in the season. This was shown this weekend when Harvard swept eight of its nine matches in three games. The Bears won just one game in one match during the entire contest.

In the third seed, freshman Bradley Smith gave up one game to his opponent Thomas Blecher, before winning the match, 3-1. After three consecutive losses this season, classmate Madhav Dhingra won, 3-0, against his opponent in the number one spot Sunday.

“I also think what made the biggest difference was our freshmen,” coach Michael Way said. “There is quite a degree of maturity that you don’t always see, and I think that our freshmen have stepped up wonderfully.”

Co-captains Tyler Olson and Sachin Patel notched wins, with Olson continuing his perfect record with a ninth victory, and Patel playing his first match of the season.

“Tyler has improved a lot over this season,” Way said. “He’s not the same player he was last year, and he was very good last year. The version of himself now would beat the version of Tyler last season, 3-0. He’s just playing really good, solid, basic, squash. He’s doing fantastically well, especially as a captain.”

HARVARD 7, YALE 2

At the Murr Athletic Center on Friday night, the Crimson took on No. 5 Yale (10-4, 5-2) in a game that determined who would claim at least a share of the Ivy League title.

In an unofficial earlier match against Yale during Ivy Scrimmages, the Bulldogs defeated Harvard, 6-3. However, Yale was only able to hold onto two of its six original victories in this Friday’s contest. Sophomore Dylan Murray won a hard-fought match in five after dropping two games. Classmate Bryan Koh also won a close game, 3-2, against newcomer Edward Columbia. Both Murray and Koh redeemed previous losses to their Yale opponents during Ivy Scrimmages.

“There was a little bit of tension because of the loss [against Yale] early in the season, but we knew we just had to go in and play our game,” McLaughlin said. “It was at home, which was an advantage, and everyone went out there deliberately and professionally and just did their best, and we had a really good day.”

The only two Crimson losses came from the number one spot, where Dhingra lost in three games to junior Sam Fenwick while junior Matt Roberts also lost, 3-0, as the seventh seed.
At the bottom of the ladder, Olson and freshman Seif Eleinen tallied two more wins against the Bulldogs, both of which were five-game matches. The three other Harvard players dominated their opponents in three games in order to clinch a share of the title.

“On paper we were not the favorites,” Way said. “We had two teams that were stronger than us, and so there was nothing straightforward about this win whatsoever. I think for the guys to win the Ivy title for such a young team and so many guys graduating last year that it’s such an achievement.”

—Staff writer Emily T. Wang can be reached at emilywang@college.harvard.edu.