The Year After the Streak: Harvard Regroups

The past isn't going to define the Harvard men's squash team anymore. No nostalgic tales of glory will overwhelm the courts of Hemenway Gym this season, because this season the Crimson looks ahead. Harvard will start with a clean slate.

Last year was the year Harvard wasn't supposed to win it all--and it didn't. Last year was the year Princeton broke the Crimson's six-year, 72-game winning streak. And last year was the year that one of the most successful teams in Harvard sports history finally yielded its champion-ship status to rival Yale.

But this season, a new, young group of players who don't remember the glory days is preparing for a winning season. This team looks forward to a capturing a record eighth-straight Ivy championship, which was slightly cheapened by a Princeton/Yale/Harvard three-way tie last year.

Steve Piltch starts his first season as head coach for both the men's and women's teams with a fresh outlook, a pool of young players, and an extraordinarily deep men's squad.

Only two seniors, Co-Captains Jon Bernheimer and Jim Masland, play in the top nine. The two veterans provide the necessary on-court and off-court support. Bernheimer, described by teammate Jeremy Fraiberg as "diligent, committed, and intense," leads by example; he plays, he trains, and he works with unrivaled intensity.

Masland, who's returned to the game after a year-long injury, has shown his innate talent by easily winning all his games this season. Both the seniors and the juniors are the only players who remember the days when Coach Dave Fish led the team to 13 undefeated seasons.

Hail to the Young'ns

Young though they may be, the freshmen and sophomores who comprise the rest of the ladder aren't lacking in experience. Take, for example, freshmen Marty Clark and Josh Horwitz, both of whom have yet to lose a game this season. Their squash backgrounds are impressive, indeed. Clark was the number-one U.S. under-18 player last year. Horwitz was right behind Clark at number two.

Moving up on the ladder, there's injury-plagued sophomore Fraiberg, who was ranked in Canada'a top 10 in 1988. Fellow classmate and number-two seed, Johnny Kaye was a three-time top-ranked player in Israel. Farokh Pandole, after twice winning the Indian Junior Nationals, quickly adapted to hard-ball squash last year to climb high on the ladder. And speaking of rapid adjustments, sophomore Mark Baker, a transfer student from England, adjusted to American squash faster than a rolling "O" to secure the number-one seed.

"Any one of about eight players could be playing number one on any given day," Piltch said. "In fact, there are about 15 or 20 players who are really good."

The Season

So far, the season has proven how talented the Crimson is. The November match against Navy was a no-contest, with Harvard winning, 9-0. The wrath of the deep and strong had no mercy on Franklin & Marshall, which fell, 9-0. Proving that the nine lives of the squash team were just as merciless on the road, the team went on to shut out Trinity with no problem. It was only at Cornell that the Crimson caught a glimpse of mortality. Although Harvard won the match, it lost only two games.

But the fight has only just begun. While the pre-Christmas matches are good indications of how well the team can play, they're still only that--indications. The real challenges start in January and February.

Although it's just 28 days long, February sees a relentless onslaught of game after game after game, including the big three matches against Penn, Princeton, and Yale.

Rather than revelling in the past, Piltch stresses that the young blood, and the old blood, aren't out for blood against the teams that conquered Crimson perfection last year.

"The guys are driven by the desire to prove they're better," Piltch said. "They're not driven by revenge. They're experienced enough to not be concerned by outside pressure."

The slate's clean, the record is 4-0, and the future is waiting to happen.

"We're not dwelling on the past because we can't change it," Masland said. "We're going on with this season."