W. Squash Buries Dartmouth

It was business as usual at Hemenway Gym last night. Dartmouth  0 Harvard  9

Once again, the Harvard women's squash team went to work on a weaker opponent to prove just who's the boss. The Crimson authoritatively flexed its muscles to belittle the Big Green of Dartmouth, 9-0.

So what else is new?

Not that winning the Ivy League championship is anything new for Harvard, last night's victory clinched for the Crimson at least a part of its fourth consecutive Ivy League championship.

Only one team stands in the way of the Harvard's absolute sovereignty--Yale.

With Yale now on its mind, Harvard (7-0 overall, 4-0 Ivy) certainly isn't resting on its laurels.

"We feel really good [about clinching a share of the title], but we've still got to play Yale", senior co-captain Libby Eynon said.

The Crimson, as the defending national champion and reigning three-time Ivy League champ, is not generous with its titles.

"We don't want to share the title with anybody--that makes us more excited about the season, rather than being complacent," Eynon said.

Senior Caroline Birks also attributed much of the team's success to the excitement associated with being a front-running team.

"We always get really psyched up for any match, whether it's Dartmouth or Yale or Princeton," she said.

Before the Crimson can channel its enthusiasm into the February 22 title bout against the Bulldogs, it must face Trinity on Saturday and Princeton the following weekend.

Trinity is regarded as an underestimated program which has the potential to take a big dog like Harvard by surprise.

"I don't know much about Trinity, but they always gave us a tough match in the past--it should be pretty interesting," Eynon said.

The Tigers, however, pose a more obvious threat to the Crimson.

"[Coach Bill Doyle] reminded us in practice that it is always harder to beat a team twice," Eynon said.

The setting for the second match with Princeton (Harvard won the first meeting, 6-3, this past Sunday) will be the Howe Tournament, where the top five teams in the country are pitted against one another in a rumble for supremacy.

"It will be physically draining since we play five or six games consecutively," Eynon said.

The Crimson's performance in the match against Princeton may or may not indicate how it can handle Yale, the weaker of the two teams.

"Princeton is definitely stronger than Yale, but we are not going to take [Yale] for granted," Eynon said.