The Grudge Match is On, Baby!

One team is the defending national champions, an up-and-coming program with top recruits and international stars. The other is the No. 2 team in the country, a well-established program with a history for winning it all.

So when the No. 2 Harvard Crimson to Hartford to take on top-ranked Trinity College tomorrow, it's no ordinary men's dual squash meet.

"Yeah, I'd call it a grudge match," said captain Tim Wyant.

Harvard squash is perhaps the most dominant collegiate sports program in any sport, ever. Thirty-one national team championships, 33 Ivy League titles, and 26 individual national champions attest to that fact. But last season, Trinity defeated the Crimson in both the regular season and in the national championship game, and Wyant hasn't forgotten.

"For the past four seasons, we've been the 1-2 teams," Wyant said.

Trinity has had superior recruiting for the last several years and boasts two-time national champion Marcus Cowie. The Bantams boast talent at all nine positions and are favorites to repeat as national champs. That means nothing, though, when the Crimson come to town, as the best junior squash players in the world comprise both teams' lineups.

Harvard is led by Wyant, who has played in the No. 1 position for the Crimson this year. Following him in the lineup are two juniors, Deepak Abraham and Grey Witcher. Peter Karlen, last year's No. 1, plays at four. Harvard scored the country's top recruit, Dylan Patterson, who is the only freshman in the lineup at No. 5. He's also suffering from a back injury, which may or may not prevent him from competing Saturday.

The bottom of the lineup is brought up by much of last year's middle order. Juniors Shondip Ghosh, Andrew Merrill and Rob Pike play at six, seven, and eight, while sophomore Dave Barry rounds out the team.

It's this depth which new Harvard Coach Satinder Bajwa will count on to eke out a close victory over Trinity.

"We have a lot of depth, and the bottom end is strong and winning," Bajwa said. "For example, Andrew Merrill was No.4 last year and is No. 7 now, so you can see we've improved."

While the Crimson has technically played half of its season, Saturday's match marks the real beginning. It has rolled over every opponent so far en route to a 9-0 record and has only lost one individual match in all those victories. Last night, the Crimson went to Dartmouth and easily rolled over the Big Green, 9-0.

"The important matches, against Trinity, Princeton and the like, all happen in February," Wyant said. "Our season really only starts now."

While both coach and players approach the match with caution, it's hard to contain their confidence. The Crimson knows it can win.

"I can't see us losing 8-1 like last season," Bajwa said. "Sometimes the players focus on too much one-on-one and who they can't beat. But we're focusing on the entire team this time."

Wyant agrees it will be a close match.

"It won't be lopsided. I guess a 5-4 or 6-3 match."

Strategy for the Crimson has changed since the beginning of the season. While Bajwa initially thought that the bottom of the lineup would win the matches, he realized that the top was pretty good, too. If one or two matches in the top go the Crimson's way, it should be able to squeak out a close win. But the fact remains that Trinity still has the talent on its side.

"All the players on both sides know each other from other tournaments," Wyant said. "They have some foreign players which we haven't seen, but really we're comfortable against them."

No one expects this to be the only meeting between these two powerhouses.

"If we fall short we'll work towards defeating them in the team championships," Bajwa said. "But we've overcome the fear that we can't beat them."

WOMEN

The Crimson women's squash team will also travel to Hartford with the men to take on Trinity. Both these teams are also nationally ranked--Harvard is No.3, Trinity is No.4.

With a 8-1 victory over Dartmouth last night, the Crimson improved its record to 5-0. While Trinity will be the hardest match for Harvard to date, Bajwa (who serves as both men's and women's coach) isn't worried.

"We really should win," he said. "But they have some strong players."

One of those "strong players" is the nation's No. 1 player, Janine Thompson, a junior out of South Africa. The Bantams are good at the top but weak at the bottom, and Bajwa expects the match to be won in the middle.

For Harvard, the lineup has been pretty consistent this year so far. Margaret Elias and Carlin Wing have the top two spots, while Colby Hall and Ella Witcher play at Nos. 3 and 4, respectively. Captain Blair Endresen competes at five. Also in the middle are Virginia Brown, Lindsey Coleman and Francis Holland, and Kate Gregory shores up the lineup at the ninth spot.