Harvard Club Squash Celebrates National Championship Win

Bouncing back from a final-round disqualification last year, Harvard Club Squash rallied to claim its long-awaited National Championship title, bringing players together from across the College.

Last month, Harvard Club Squash (HCS) travelled down to Philadelphia, Penn., to compete in the pinnacle of collegiate club competition. Led by junior captain Daniel Hochberg, a Crimson Staff Writer, it was evident that the team had something to prove.

Touching on the unfortunate administrative error that resulted in the team losing the top spot to rivals Boston University, Hochberg made clear that this was the driving motivation for both him and his squad.

“We ended up being disqualified after winning in the finals,” said Hochberg of last year’s tournament, “to prove we could come back from that… It was a really gratifying moment”.

The College Squash Association (CSA) Club Championships are a knockout format, with teams battling it out across three divisions. It was no smooth road to the top for the Crimson.

Like many club sports teams, HCS is no stranger to retention struggles. The team’s schedule is fast and furious, and it can be difficult to maintain the balance between competitiveness and academics without the support akin to the varsity programs at Harvard.

“Four round robins, eight to 10 matches, and it can be a struggle to get people to show up to those. It can take up your entire weekend,” said Hochberg.

The depth of the squad, however, became evident when freshman Andrew Bradkin was felled by a hamstring injury in the team’s first match against Washington University Saint Louis, leaving the squad a man down. Despite the devastating injury, the Harvard team managed to take the win, with the team beating the Bears (6-3).

“We had our nine get injured last minute, as well as our seven missed his flight, so we were down two players, which made it a little bit more stressful,” said sophomore Mina Subramanian. “But, we were able to pull out the win, which [was] really exciting.”

The second matchup against the team’s local rival, Boston College, was equally tense.

“Leading up to Nationals, we played the Boston teams a lot, and we had played BC earlier in the season and lost to them,” said Subramanian. “So, we were really determined to win this match and get our redemption.”

The top seeds, Hochberg and freshman Avery Lin, easily beat their opponents, giving up one game between the pair. However, a series of tight match-ups left the team tied with three more games up for grabs. Junior Cotton Snoddy and Subramanian were able to secure the win for the Crimson, even accounting for the default resulting from Bradkin’s injury.

Into the final round of the tournament, the title was on the line as Harvard faced off against Purdue.

The opening four matches were traded off between the opposing teams, but the Crimsons’ break came when fifth-seeded senior Tyler Weisberg won his match in a cool 25 minutes. With the tide turned in Harvard’s favor, the final pairings stormed through the Boilermakers, bringing home the win for the Crimson.

“It easily could have gone either way,” said Suramanian, who was notably the only woman representing the Harvard team at Nationals.

The Crimson beat Purdue (5-4)to bring glory back to Cambridge for the first time in Harvard history.

Hochberg credits much of the team’s success to the tight-knit environment he has worked hard to cultivate over his tenure as president of the club.

“The seniors did a great job of setting the culture,” said Hochberg. “Everyone just was able to buy in.”

“There is this community that you can be a part of when you want to, but also not the expectation that you can’t miss anything,” added Subramanian

The squash team is trying to capitalize on its forward momentum, continuing to find ways to entice incoming freshmen to bolster its ranks. If you are an eager pre-freshman or a current interested student, the club squash team will be hosting a special Visitas practice on Sunday, April 26.

— Staff writer Matilda C. Genieser can be reached at [email protected].