M. Squash Flattens Dartmouth

The No. 3 Harvard men’s squash team trounced No. 7 Dartmouth yesterday in preparation for its showdown on Saturday with No. 1 Trinity. The Crimson dropped only one game in its 9-0 victory.

The highlight of the afternoon for Harvard (4-0, 3-0 Ivy) was freshman and intercollegiate No. 10 Will Broadbent’s upset victory over No. 4 Ryan Donegan in the top spot.

After the win—Broadbent’s second this year over Donegan—he commented on being ranked six slots lower than his opponent.

“It’s better that way, because then I have to prove myself to everybody,” Broadbent said. “I don’t want anything given to me.”

Broadbent will have another chance to prove himself on Saturday, when he faces defending intercollegiate champion Bernardo Samper.

Before the match against the Big Green (8-5, 0-3 Ivy), Broadbent spoke to his father, who reminded him of his tendency to “come out firing” in the first game, only to lose his focus in the second.

Characteristically, Broadbent didn’t hold back at all in the first game. Harnessing his nervous energy, he took the first three points of the match and then won the next three on strokes.

Donegan pushed Broadbent into playing long, drawn out points, but couldn’t place his shots outside the lanky freshman’s reach.

Broadbent suffered a brief hiccup when he tried an ill-advised drop shot, but he wrongfooted Donegan to regain control of the game and closed it out, 9-1.

In the second game, Broadbent’s father proved prophetic. Broadbent, who admitted to being overly relaxed and complacent, missed an early overhead and the competitors soon began trading handouts.

Finally, Donegan opened the scoring on the 15th serve of the game. On the next point, Broadbent regained the serve and, in an attempt to change the tenor of the game, uncharacteristically chose to serve from the left side of the court.

“[I’ll try] anything that’s going to disrupt the rhythm of the other player,” Broadbent said. “It gives him a different look. Little things like that can make a big difference.”

If Broadbent’s tactics had any effect, it was a delayed one. He and Donegan continued trading handouts, and the Dartmouth sophomore won three more points before Broadbent got on the board. Once he did, though, he won six consecutive points.

Broadbent’s success was short-lived, however, as Donegan reeled off four straight points of his own to earn a game point. When he failed to convert, Broadbent closed the door with four points in a row.

The game-winning point came on a stroke, causing Donegan to respond by kicking the ball in disgust.

Broadbent continued pressing his advantage in the third game, as he won the first five points and built a 6-3 lead. As Broadbent secured what he called the biggest win of his college career, he punctuated each of his final three points with a successively louder “Yes!” accompanied by a fist pump. Broadbent said the unusual display of emotion was an attempt to fire himself up before facing Trinity.

“I want to be able to carry a little of this momentum into that match,” Broadbent said. “I was trying to really steam right ahead and take this to Saturday.”

Hard-hitting junior No. 11 James Bullock and sophomore No. 21 Mike Blumberg also turned in commanding wins for the Crimson.

Blumberg appears to have rebounded from an early-season slump and has risen to No. 3 on Harvard’s ladder, behind Bullock and Broadbent.

“He’s just playing squash at an entirely different level than he was at the beginning of the year,” co-captain Dylan Patterson said. “He’s very light on his feet, so his movement is there, but [the question is] ‘Is his head there and is his racket there?’, which it is.”

Blumberg’s resurgence, along with the return of sophomore No. 26 Asher Hochberg from a sore back, couldn’t have come at a better time for the Crimson, which hosts the undefeated Bantams on Saturday.

Hochberg, who played at No. 5, should compete against Trinity despite not yet being 100 percent.

Hochberg’s determination is not surprising. Every Crimson player acknowledges the importance of this matchup. Even before yesterday, they had been meeting to focus on playing within themselves when they take on Trinity.

“Everyone’s been looking forward to it all year,” Broadbent said. “This is it.”

—Staff writer Alan G. Ginsberg can be reached at aginsber@fas.harvard.edu.