W. Squash Howe Cup Streak Halted at Five

It was a bad year for streaks in women's squash.

If you are the Harvard women's squash team, winners of the six previous national championships, that's a bad thing.

Record: 9-2, 5-1 Ivy

Coach: Bill Doyle

Highlights: Ivy Pochoda wins singles title; Team is national runner-up.

Seniors: Ivy Pochoda, Leah Ramella

But if you are Harvard captain Ivy Pochoda, looking to cup a career of near-misses with a first-ever national singles championship, the end of streaks is a mixed blessing--unaccustomed team misfortune, but long-sought-after personal glory.

During the year in which the first bricks of the Harvard women's squash dynasty finally began to fall, as the Crimson snapped a 59-match winning streak and failed to win the Howe Cup championship for the first time since 1991, its captain flung the singles title monkey from her back with authority, beating the top two seeds en route to the individual championship.

In a twist of fate, Pochoda's four-game, come-from-behind finals victory came over Penn's Jessica DiMauro, the same woman who narrowly beat her out for the 1996 singles title.

DiMauro won the first game easily, but Pochoda regrouped and took the second, 10-8. Pochoda took control thereafter, posting 9-1 and 9-4 victories in the final two games for her first USWIRA title.

"I'm elated," said Pochoda after the match. "I've been focusing on this competition for a while, and it's just great to come out and play the way that I've always felt I was capable of."

Pochoda held just a three seed entering the tournament, which meant the road to the finals ran through top-seeded Princeton freshman Julia Beaver. It took five games for Pochoda to put the freshman in her place, as she went on to win 9-1, 7-9, 9-7, 6-9, 9-6 in a hotly contested veteran versus rookie matchup.

Pochoda's heroics almost made up for a season of unfamiliar shortcomings, as Harvard (9-2, 5-1 Ivy) lost twice to the Princeton Tigers, including an 8-1 drubbing in the national finals.

The Howe Cup loss came after a tight, 5-4 win over Penn in the semis. The result was eerily similar to the weekend of January 31, when the Crimson followed a 5-4 win over the Quakers with a 7-2 loss to the Tigers, the team's first setback in 59 matches.

The only two games were won by the No. 8 and No. 9 players, junior Vanessa Hoermann and freshman Virginia Brown.

The team dropped just three other games all season, one in an 8-1 trouncing of a strong Trinity squad and the others in the season finale against Yale, a 7-2 Harvard win.

Unfortunately for the Crimson, they dropped the ones that counted, as Princeton added yet another sport to its impressive belt of Ivy domination.

"Penn and Princeton were both strong, good teams," said sophomore Blair Endresen after the Howe Cup. "After the Penn win, we were feeling very good and ready for Princeton. We fought for every single match, from one to 10.

The prospects for next season are unclear. Although it loses All-American Pochoda to graduation, the team returns another in junior Brooke Herlihy.

Harvard's wildcard may be its change of venue, as it leaves Hemenway Gym for a new spacious athletic facility across the river.

In many ways it is a new beginning for Harvard women's squash as it begins its post-dynastic years. For just the second time in the '90s, the team will hope for a bad year for streaks.