M., W. Squash Cannot Overcome No.1 Trinity

HARTFORD, Conn.—Junior Ella Witcher had been in this situation before. As a freshman at the 2000 Howe Cup Consolation match against Trinity, Witcher had been up two games to none in the No. 4 spot with the overall match tied at four games apiece only to give up three straight games to seal the loss.

On Saturday, Witcher had another opportunity to take one from the Bantams in the only remaining match but fell short at No. 7, 3-1, as Trinity defeated Harvard, 5-4, at the Kellner Squash Center in Hartford, Conn.

Shortly afterwards, the Harvard men’s squash team fell to Trinity by an 8-1 score. The losses will drop the No. 1 Crimson women behind the No. 2 Bantams in the next Women’s Intercollegiate Squash Association (WISA) rankings, and further solidify the Trinity men’s hold on the top position in the National Intercollegiate Squash Association (NISRA) poll.

“As far as I’m concerned, we competed,” Harvard Coach Satinder Bajwa said. “The name of the game is to come here and compete.”

Saturday’s events included the dedication of Trinity’s new squash courts in between the women’s and men’s matches. The Bantams celebrated the occasion by narrowly upending the defending Howe Cup champions in the first match, and then drubbing the No. 2 Crimson men after the ceremony.

Harvard Women

With the Crimson down 4-3 and needing wins in both of the remaining two games in progress in order to take the match, co-captain Colby Hall roared back after losing the first set to beat Mollie Anderson, 3-1 to give Harvard a chance. But Witcher fell to Trinity freshman Meridy Vollmer, who rode a 7-0 run to a victory in the pivotal third game and won in four (9-5, 7-9, 9-5, 9-4).

“I know that right now everyone’s really sad,” Hall said. “But Coach got on the floor with us afterwards and said he looked in each of your eyes and saw this sort of fight. No one ever gave up.”

The Crimson’s depth had, up until that point, compensated for losses at the top of its lineup. Sophomore No. 1 Louisa Hall, Colby’s sister, scored only five total points in a 3-0 defeat to the nation’s top-ranked player, sophomore Amina Helal. Co-captain Margaret Elias won her first game against Trinity’s precocious freshman Lynn Leong, but Leong breezed through the next two to win the No. 2 match.

But the Crimson was bolstered by a convincing win by senior Carlin Wing over Trinity’s Samantha Lewins at No. 4, who gave up only seven combined points in winning three straight.

Harvard freshman Lindsey Wilkins provided a less-expected boost at No. 3. The eighth-ranked Wilkins upset fifth-ranked Pam Saunders in three games. Wilkins came through despite her inexperience in Trinity’s colored glass courts, where players typically require an adjustment period to see the white ball clearly against the dark surface. She was briefly rattled during the third game after a lunge to the floor left her with an apparent ankle injury, but she regained her composure and pulled out the third-frame victory, 10-8.

“The name of the game is competition, and Lindsey Wilkins epitomizes that,” Bajwa said. “This was a hell of a match to play under such conditions as a freshman.”

Fellow freshman Hillary Thorndike also won at the No. 8 slot.

The close loss suggests that the Howe Cup final, the women’s squash national championship, will be a very tightly contested affair between these two schools at Princeton in early March.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that we’ll work really, really hard for that and beat them there,” Hall said.

The Crimson women next host No. 10 Penn on Saturday at noon, followed by No. 3 Princeton on Sunday.

Harvard Men

The Harvard men’s match with the Bantams wasn’t nearly as close as the women’s. Facing seven of the top 20 ranked players in the nation, the Crimson fell by a final score of 8-1.

Amidst a rapid Trinity crowd, the single win for Harvard came from freshman Michael Blumberg, also the only player to take his match into a fourth game. Blumberg contended with 17th- ranked senior Rohan Bhappu in the No.5 spot.

“He’s a tough player,” Blumberg said. “He mixes it up so it’s hard to get a rhythm.”

Blumberg took control of the first two games, winning 9-5 and 9-3. But Bhappu came back in the third game, beating Blumberg 9-6 and forcing a fourth game.

“The first two games were really good,” Blumberg said. “I got out there and took the ball to him. Sometimes, he got on a roll—I tried to slow it down and get my game going.”

The remaining crowd filed in during the fourth game to watch Harvard’s final shot at a win, as all the other matches had ended. Blumberg came through with a 9-7 game, marring Trinity’s list of 3-0 wins with a 3-1 Harvard victory.

“You get really nervous, especially coming here,” Blumberg said. “There are so many people. They make it really hard to think because they’re so loud.”

Another player that fell victim to Trinity jeers is co-captain Peter Karlen, who returned from injury in last week’s competition against Dartmouth.

No. 5 ranked Karlen played in the No. 4 spot, attracting attention in one of Trinity’s new courts with a close 10-8 loss against eighth-ranked junior Nicholas Kyme in the first game. Kyme won the next two games 9-6, 9-1, as Karlen fell 3-0 for the match. Bantam squash enthusiasts weren’t thrilled with Karlen, loudly criticizing every let he called while cheering for the hometown favorite.

“He’s obviously not 100 percent,” Bajwa said. “But him being on the team just strengthens everybody and we definitely needed that.”

Among the matchups with the best players in the nation, junior Dylan Patterson lost to top-ranked freshman Bernardo Samper in the No. 1 spot immediately following sophomore James Bullock’s loss to No. 3-ranked sophomore Michael Ferreira in the No. 2 spot.

Despite the paper results, the Crimson ended its battle with No. 1 Trinity with hope for the NISRA championship that Harvard will host on Feb. 22-24.

“I think the home crowd’s a big deal,” Karlen said. “Couple weeks, hopefully, we’ll get them in the finals. That’s the championship at Harvard, so I think we’ll have a chance to turn around then, and get different matchups. Anything can happen on the day.”

On deck for the Crimson men are tournaments against No. 15 Amherst on Wednesday, followed by contests with No. 10 Penn and No. 4 Princeton on Saturday and Sunday, all hosted by Harvard at Barnaby Courts in the Murr Center.