M., W. Squash Have Ivy Title Hopes Dashed by Tigers at Murr Center

The backcourt area of the Murr Cnter's Barnaby Courts features a wipe-away message board that currently exhorts the team to, "Leave it all on the court. At the end of the day, it's all that you can do."

At the end of a frenzied weekend of squash, however, all the Harvard men's and women's squash teams can do is reflect on opportunity lost.

Entering this weekend, both squads were presented with the chance to successfully defend their Ivy League titles at home by winning matches against Pennsylvania and Princeton.

Instead, the Harvard Crimson ended the weekend two titles lighter. The No. 2 men's team (11-2, 4-1 Ivy) lost a very close match to No. 3 Princeton 5-4 yesterday, leaving it a game behind the Tigers (8-1, 5-1 Ivy) in the Ivy League standings. The No. 2 women's team (6-3, 3-2 Ivy) fell to No. 1 Pennsylvania (7-0, 5-0 Ivy) 6-3 a day earlier.

"It's a tough loss," co-captain Eric Lauer said afterwards. "Under different circumstances, we could have won."

In the flip sides of the two matches, the men defeated their Quaker counterparts 9-0 on Saturday, while the women fell to Princeton in another 5-4 heartbreaker.

"Close 5-4 matches are always very difficult to take," Harvard Coach Satinder Bajwa said after the Princeton losses. "But we had some very tough times."

The bulk of the difficulties faced by the men's team came in the form of injuries to top players. Junior No. 2 Deepak Abraham's match against Princeton freshman David Yik was interrupted when Abraham hurt his

ankle. He was never able to fully recover, and Yik won the match 3-1

(15-17, 15-10, 15-6, 15-7). Freshman No. 4 Dylan Patterson has been plagued by back injuries for much of the season, and missed Saturday's match as a result. Playing through pain yesterday, he took Princeton's Eric Pearson to five sets before falling 3-2 (15-10, 13-15, 12-15, 15-11, 15-7).

"I'm disappointed," Patterson said. "If not for my back, I'm sure I would have taken that one, and it definitely effected the match."

Harvard nearly won despite the injuries. Victories by juniors No. 3 Grayson Witcher, No. 6 Shondip Ghosh, No. 7 Andrew Merrill and No. 9 Rob Pike kept the Crimson in contention.

But in the end, there were too many injuries and too many Yiks. David's older brother, defending NISRA champion Peter, defeated Crimson co-captain No. 1 Tim Wyant in a very well-played match, 3-1.

Wyant had defeated the elder Yik twice earlier in the year, at an Ivy League scrimmage and at the USSRA Five-Man Team Championship in New Haven. This time, however, Yik rebounded from a 15-9 loss in his first game to take the next three, 15-5, 15-8, and 17-14.

"He's a great player," Wyant said. "And Princeton's a great team. You can't take anything away from them. They played a very tough match."

"We defeated them at the Five-Man earlier in the year," Ghosh added. "And we've both grown since then. This time, the outcome was reversed."

A day earlier, the men had warmed up by defeating the Quakers (2-7, 1-4

Ivy) 9-0. Dropping only two games in the process, the Crimson seemed primed for a great performance when it counted.

However, with the loss, another Ivy League Championship becomes unlikely, and the team must look forward to March's NISRA Team Championships for a shot at redemption.

"I look forward to perhaps getting another shot at Peter," Wyant said of

NISRA's , where Harvard will probably be ranked behind both Trinity and Princeton. "But more important, it's a chance for the team to win the national championship."

The women's team fell 6-3 to No. 1 Penn yesterday, losing at Nos. 1-5 and No. 7. With the win, Penn claimed at least a share of its first Ivy League championship.

Only junior No. 6 Virgina Brown, senior No. 8 Frances Holland, and junior No. 9 Katie Gregory emerged with wins.

Despite the loss, Bawja seemed satisfied with the Crimson's effort.

"If we had played like this against Trinity, we would have won," he said, alluding to a 7-2 loss to Trinity a week earlier.

A scary moment came whencaptain No. 5 Blair Endresen sustained a sharp blow to the head from Penn junior Lauren Patrizio's racquet.

Endresen left the courts for several minutes, but returned and finished the match, even though Penn had already clinched the overall victory.

"It says a lot about her, that she decided to finish the game," Bajwa

said. "She's been a great captain. Tim has grown much as a player, and Eric has been a great role model, but Blair has had to do her job by herself. She's done a very good job."

The next day, the top of the Crimson women's order was still unable to come up big. Wins by Brown, Holland, Gregory and freshman No. 7 Lindsay Coleman were not enough to carry the Crimson. Freshman No. 4 Ella Witcher, ill for much of the weekend, took her first two games, but ultimately lost three straight games to Princeton senior Liz Kelly.

Princeton raised its record to 5-1 in league play and 8-1 overall.

Assistant Coach Paul Brogna noted that the team cannot afford to dwell on

the weekend's losses.

"The Howe Cup will give us a chance to avenge them both," Brogna said, looking towards Friday's championship competition in

New Haven.

For the time being, the future is all that either team has.