Ghosh Wins, M. Squash Defeats Princeton 5-4

Harvard squash took a huge step forward in the race for the Ivy League crown, defeating Princeton in a grudge match yesterday. After both the men's and women's teams vanquished Penn on Saturday, they had enough steam left to take out the Tigers Sunday.

The women edged out the Tigers, 6-3, on strong play from the middle of the order.

The real test for the Crimson women came against the Quakers, however, and the 5-4 win gave it a good chance at claiming a conference championship. Harvard only needs to tame Yale next week for Ivy title.

For the Harvard men, Princeton was the real test. Last year, the Tigers beat the Crimson in a 5-4 nail biter to seize the Ivy championship from Harvard's hands for the first time in a decade.

This year's marathon match somehow managed to surpass the previous one in dramatic moments.

Harvard was victorious 5-4, but the score does not reflect how close these two teams were yesterday.

The 5-4 decision came down to the last points of the last game of the last match. Co-captain Shondip Ghosh was able to rally and outlast Princeton's Dan Rutherford for the clinching Crimson win.

"Going into my fourth game, I knew it was a 4-4 match," Ghosh said. "I knew the fifth game would be huge. But I feel that the bigger the moment, the better I play."

And few moments had been as big as this one for the Crimson, as the entire crowd at the Jadwin Gymnasium found its way to the only remaining match of the day.

Ghosh dropped the first two games against Rutherford, necessitating that he win the final three for Harvard to leave Princeton with a victory. He won the next two and led late in the fifth game, but Rutherford found a way to scratch back and tie it at 15-15.

"He was playing some great squash," Ghosh said. "I was trying to run him around. I pushed a ball deep, he tried to play it off the back wall, but came up short."

With Rutherford's mis-hit, Harvard remained undefeated in Ivy League play on the year, putting it in the driver's seat to reclaim a conference championship.

Harvard heads to Yale next weekend, hoping to clinch the title against the Elis.