M. Squash Seeks Ninth Straight National Title

This weekend the Harvard men's squash team looks to continue one of college sports' greatest dynasties.

After capturing its ninth straight Ivy League title last week, the Crimson sets its sights this weekend on winning its ninth consecutive National Intercollegiate Squash Rackets Association Team Championships--essentially the national team championship.

Harvard, ranked No. 2 both in the nation and in the tournament, will enjoy the benefits of home-court advantage, with the tournament's matches beginning Friday at the Barnaby Courts of the Murr Center.

The tournament will be played in a pool format, with the nation's top eight teams (as decided by the college poll) in the top flight. Trinity, who handed Harvard its only loss this season, is the No. 1 seed. Yale, whom Harvard handily defeated last week for the Ivy League title, is seeded No. 3.

"We can definitely win this weekend," said sophomore Shondip Ghosh. "On paper, there may be better teams than us, but based on how we played last week, we can win [the championship]."

The Crimson (10-1, 6-1 Ivy) is coming off of a spectacular 9-0 victory against Yale (15-2, 5-1 Ivy) last Wednesday at the Murr Center.

With captain Tim Wyant taking over the No. 1 spot from sophomore Deepak Abraham against Yale, Harvard's players won their matches easily.

Sophomores Grayson Witcher, playing at No. 3 for the Crimson, and Andrew Merrill, Harvard's No. 4 player, dropped zero games in their matches against Yale.

"[Yale] was supposed to be tough, but we really smoked them," said freshman standout Peter Karlen. "It felt really great to win that."

Despite its overall dominance over the Elis, Harvard did have to fight for the win.

"[The Yale victory] was not an easy win for us," Ghosh said. "Basically, at the bottom [of the order], it was hard because both teams have a lot of depth there, but in the end, we were able to win."

At the tournament this weekend, the Crimson's first opponent will be Dartmouth on Friday, in a match that Harvard should win with relative ease. In February, the Crimson beat Dartmouth by the score of 8-1, with Abraham dropping Harvard's only match in four games.

If both Yale and Harvard win their first-round matches, the two Ivy League rivals will meet in the second round, a match-up that clearly favors the Crimson.

"We all played very well against [Yale]," Abraham said. "That was the difference for us. We finally clicked together as a team, and there was a lot of team spirit to feed off of."

Trinity, however, still looms dangerously in the Crimson's way. In early February, Trinity beat Harvard by the score of 8-1.

The Crimson could find one seed of comfort in that score, however: Harvard's lone match victory in that meet was the only match that Trinity dropped this season.

"The team has made a lot of changes since we played Trinity, and I'm confident that we can beat them," Karlen said.

"All it takes to win is five people playing the game of their life," Abraham said. "We have a very good chance against Trinity, especially because they already think that they can beat us. It's anybody's game."

Amazingly, Trinity (14-0) has not dropped any individual match--other than the loss to Harvard--this season. After beating the Crimson, the Bantams have rolled to easy 9-0 victories in its last three meets.

The Crimson, however, holds one crucial psychological ace in its bag of tricks. Last season, Trinity finished second at the NISRA Championships, losing to underdog Harvard in the finals for the second year in a row.

The Crimson hopes that history repeats itself this weekend.