Crimson Racquetwomen Entomb Middlebury, 5-2

The Harvard women's squash team defeated Middlebury College yesterday afternoon in Hemenway gymnasium in their last preparation before tomorrow's pivotal contest against Princeton to determine which squad is the best in the country.

Crimson coach Paul Moses admitted yesterday that some of his players may have been looking ahead to Sunday as they played Middlebury and thus Harvard had some difficulty early in the contest, managing to take only two of the first four matches.

Herring Catch

Harvard's number three player Caroline Cunningham took the first match, beating Amy Herring, 15-8, 15-7, and 15-10. Herring had particular trouble with Cunningham's soft, looping serves and with the exhausting pace of the Crimson player's game.

In the next match, Middlebury's Nancy Rone muscled her way past Harvard's number five player, Jenny Stone, using hard, usually low shots rather than finesse shots.

Caroline Cunningham's sister Eleanor, the number four player, put Harvard back in front 2-1 shortly after Stone's loss by squashing Sarah Lincoln, 12-15, 15-10, 15-7, 18-17.

When number seven Suki Magraw, playing in her first varsity match (number two player Sarah Mleczko sat out to rest her hamstring injury for Sunday) fell to Lissa Moran, Moses said he felt "very worried."

Going, Going, Gone

Fortunately for the Crimson as the going got tough the big guns got going. Becky Tung, playing at number two, beat Betsy Miller in three games, 15-5, 15-10, and 16-15.

Then number six Wendy Sonnebend overwhelmed Blythe Hamer in three games, allowing her only 22 points overall.

Good Stuff

The best match of the contest took place with number one Julia Moore vanquishing Susan Foster in four games. Foster managed to scrape by in the second game 15-11, but otherwise Moore's march to victory seemed inevitable.

Moses said later that Moore's "long stride and anticipation plus her very strong arms and legs enable her to cover the court while seeming deceptively slow, and to hit the ball hard whenever she hits it, no matter how stretched out she is." Foster was outclassed.

Tougher

Against the Tigers on Sunday, however, Moore will have much tougher competition as she faces freshman Kris Kinney, who beat Moore 3-1 last year while she played for Andover. (I thought that meant she was supposed to come here?)

In fact, Moses expects tough competition all the way down the ladder against Princeton. "Every match is up in the air" he said yesterday.

Oh, by the way, Harvard also plays Williams Sunday, after they face Princeton. But Moses admitted yesterday, "I'm not that worried about Williams." You see, Harvard seems to have one goal and only one goal for Sunday: They want to make sure this isn't another Year of the Tiger.