Squash Rolls Over Cornell in Home Opener

The Harvard squash teams handily disposed of Ivy opponent Cornell on Saturday at the home opener of the 2001-2002 season, dropping just one of 18 matches at the Barnaby Courts at the Murr Center.

The Crimson women (2-0, 2-0 Ivy) soundly defeated the Big Red by a score of 8-1.

Currently ranked first in the nation, the women’s squad was led by junior Ella Witcher, freshman Hilary Thorndike, and co-captains Colby Hall and Margaret Elias. All four posted 9-0, 9-0, 9-0 victories in the fifth, seventh, sixth, and second spots, respectively.

“We had a lot of intensity going in there,” Hall said. “We had a team meeting before with the coaches, and we said that we want to make every match a perfect match and every shot perfect.”

Three freshmen—Thorndike, Stephanie Hendricks, and Lindsey Wilkins—are making immediate contributions to the team. All three posted victories on Saturday.

“We have a lot of really good freshmen this year which helps our depth and makes up for any people that we lost last year,” sophomore Louisa Hall said.

The lone loss was in the No. 1 match-up between Louisa Hall and Cornell senior Olga Puigdeont Sola.

Currently ranked third in the nation, Hall was up two games and had a game ball before Sola broke serve.

Hall then dropped three consecutive games, losing for the first time this season.

Sola seems to be a mental stumbling block for Hall, as she has yet to defeat Sola so far in her career.

“It’s always a really big challenge for me to beat someone for the first time because I start doubting myself,” Louisa said.

In what was considered the toughest match of the competition, there were still positives to be taken from the loss.

“She had an incredibly level of intensity and focus,” said her sister Colby Hall. “It was a disappointing loss for her, but she really played with a lot of focus and heart.”

The men’s squad (2-0, 2-0 Ivy) won its second straight competition 9-0 and did not drop a single game in the rout.

The Harvard men’s squad trounced Brown in its season opener on Nov. 16 in similar 27-0 fashion. So far this season the Crimson has not dropped a single game.

Both teams credit extensive fitness training and individual meetings with Harvard Coach Satinder Bajwa as the main reasons for the early success.

“We trained much harder than them,” co-captain David Barry said. “Coach Bajwa prepared us much better with work not only in fitness but also in breaking down our strokes. We became more efficient as a result.”

With such preparation, the Crimson entered the match against the Big Red with confidence.

“A couple of us had a tough time getting focused early, and we had some tight games in the beginning,” Barry said. “As we regained our focus and played more simple squash, we came out as the better team.”

With the victory over the Big Red, the Crimson is rolling into the USSRA five-man teams championships next weekend, where it will face top competition, including No. 1 Trinity.

“The Cornell match provided a good stepping stone toward [the weekend] for gauging our level towards other competition and having a good match before this weekend,” Barry said.

The Cornell match came one day after co-captain Peter Karlen and junior Dylan Patterson traveled to Hartford for the Professional Squash Association tournament. Karlen plays in the No. 1slot for the Crimson, while Patterson plays No. 3.

Patterson won his first-round qualifier against Rohan Bahappu, who plays fifth for Trinity, providing momentum going into the weekend’s competition.

“We’ll spend the week working on our racquet work and mentally getting focused on playing some of the better teams we’ll be playing later in the season, such as Princeton and Trinity,” Karlen said. “It’s [the USSRA championship] the first event we’re trying to peak for this year.”