M. Squash Silences Critics, Wins Title Again

They came, they saw, they squashed.

Last weekend's National Intercollegiate Squash Racquets Association (NISRA) Team Tournament featured a level of intrigue not seen in many years, at least from Harvard's point of view.

As in each of the previous seven years, the Harvard men's squash team emerged with the Potter Trophy in hand, effectively crowning it national champion. Like last year, it did so with a tight 5-4 victory over rival Trinity.

But for the first time in recent memory, Harvard's players tasted the sweetness of winning a tournament in which it entered as the underdog. The Trinity Bantams, who entered the tournament No. 1, earned their lofty ranking two weeks earlier when they snapped the Crimson's 89-match win streak with a 6-3 victory.

So Sunday's Tournament Final was about revenge, and a national championship to boot.

"It came down to who wanted it more, and I think we proved it was us," said captain Daniel Ezra, who avenged his earlier loss to defending national singles champion Marcus Cowie with a 3-0 victory at the No. 1 spot. "I'm just totally ecstatic."

Ezra's emotional victory topped a four-match winning streak by the Crimson, who opened the finale down 2-0. Harvard had rolled over Denison, 9-0, in the Tournament's opening round, then netted a 6-3 win over a strong Amherst team.

But the players knew that the true test would come against the Bantams.

"We always knew that Trinity would be our toughest competition, but having played them earlier we knew what we had to do to beat them," freshman No. 6 Andrew Merrill said.

It was Merrill's win which put the Crimson on the board, overcoming a 2-1 deficit in the best-of-five to win, 3-2. Classmate Deepak Abraham, Harvard's No. 4, followed with a come-from-behind triumph of his own, 3-1, to a player who had beaten him two weeks before.

A 3-1 win by sophomore No. 9 Eric Lauer, also playing someone to whom he had lost during the regular season, gave Harvard its first overall lead, 3-2, and set up Ezra's match.

Could a third-straight Harvard player vindicate a regular-season loss? Could he do it against someone who, as a freshman, beat him out for last year's singles title? Could he do it without so much as dropping a game?

Ezra's resounding answer: Yes, yes and yes.

"Daniel Ezra's performance was masterful," Harvard Coach Bill Doyle said. "[Cowie] is a great physical player who has a lot of presence on the court and does a lot of talking between points. He tries to intimidate, but I don't think Daniel was intimidated."

Down 14-11 in the first-to-15 opening game, Ezra stormed back to win 17-15. After the heartbreaker Cowie seemed spent for the next two games, and Ezra cruised 15-4 and 15-7.

"I think he just cracked after the first game," Ezra said. "It felt particularly good considering I'd gotten creamed in the regular season. He had a lot of support and it felt really great to silence the crowd."

Ezra's win brought his team within one match of the national title, but it would be a tough win. Trinity won at No. 5--beating Harvard senior Jeff Blumberg, who was slightly injured with shin splints--and No. 7--over junior David Beitchman--in a tough five-game match to tie the score at four and bring the championship down to the ninth match.

But sophomore No. 3 Tim Wyant was ready. He bested his opponent in three straight to take home the Potter Trophy for the Crimson.

"It was very exciting," Wyant said. "I was nervous, but all my teammates were cheering and I had strong support.

"It was understandable that people felt we were No. 2 going in, but we tried to approach the match with confidence enough that we wouldn't be intimidated."

So it is another year, another national title for the Harvard men's squash team. Or is it?

This was perhaps the first time Harvard truly had to show its heart against an arguably stronger team, and it passed the test.

"It was a very strange feeling," Ezra said. "Trinity is our nemesis, so it was like killing a demon. It's like a huge weight has been taken off our shoulders."

This year may also be just a little bit more special because Harvard graduates three of its top nine in June, including its Nos. 1 and 2, Ezra and Rishaad Bilimoria. A young team, and one that has actually seen defeat, takes its place.

But as the team begins down the long road to a ninth straight title, it has the winningest program in collegiate squash egging it along.

"It's definitely nice to have the tradition as motivation," Merrill said. "It kind of shows how hard everyone before me has worked, so I'd be letting them down if I didn't work just as hard."