M. Squash Takes Third at CSAs Over Yale

While the Harvard men’s squash team couldn’t wrest the Ivy crown from Princeton for its 11th title in 13 years or bring home its first national championship since 1996-97, it still finished its season on a triumphant note.

The fourth-seeded Crimson (6-3, 4-2 Ivy) edged Yale 5-4 in the third-place match at the College Squash Association (CSA) Team Championships, avenging its loss to the Bulldogs in its regular-season finale—its first home loss to Yale since 1961. Harvard was relegated to the consolation match after falling 8-1 in the semifinals to juggernaut Trinity, which went on to defeat the Tigers for its sixth consecutive national championship.

In contrast to previous seasons, the historically deep Crimson relied on the top of its lineup while injuries and inconsistency left the bottom of its ladder in flux.

Harvard’s lone win in the semifinals against the Bantams came in the No. 1 matchup—the last of the day—where freshman Will Broadbent roared back to beat defending intercollegiate champion Bernardo Samper in four games after dropping the first 9-2.

“Fortunately, I was playing some of my best squash all year, so I was able to keep the ball nice and tight up front—tight to the wall, tight to the tin,” Broadbent said.

Broadbent’s victory prevented the Crimson from being shutout for the first time in program history.

Against Yale the following day, it was co-captain Dylan Patterson, playing at No. 4, who came up with a clutch win in the final match.

Playing his last match for Harvard, Patterson—whose coaches refused to inform him that the outcome of the match hinged on his result—trailed Aftab Mathur 2-1 before taking the final two games 9-2 and 9-4.

“If there was one person we would want playing the deciding match against Yale, it’d be Dylan,” sophomore Asher Hochberg said. “He’s a senior, he’s experienced, it’s his last match and he’s extremely tough mentally.”

Broadbent had found himself playing the deciding match against the Bulldogs four days earlier, in the Crimson’s regular-season finale. But after taking the first six points from Julian Illingworth, Broadbent began to struggle. He held on to win the first game 9-7, but dropped the next three as Illingworth—who had also beaten Broadbent the previous year in the finals of the United States Under-19 national tournament—gave the Bulldogs the win.

Harvard’s biggest home match to that point had come when it hosted Trinity Feb. 1. In front of a frenzied crowd, the Crimson fell 8-1, with sophomore Mike Blumberg earning Harvard’s lone win against the Bantams for the third time in three career matches against Trinity.

The Crimson—without junior No. 2 James Bullock, who was sidelined by a groin injury—also fell to the Bantams in the second round of the USSRA Team Championship, 5-0.

Harvard struggled with injuries throughout the early part of its season.

Junior Ziggy Whitman didn’t play until a 9-0 victory over Williams in January—which Hochberg missed with a back and injury—and Broadbent was later kept out of a 7-2 win over Penn by a hamstring injury.

“I was surprised at how good Penn was,” Whitman said. “They really played well. The Ivy League has gotten a lot better over the last few years and Penn is proof of that. It is very tough to play up even one spot in a league this competitive.”

The Crimson opened its season with a 9-0 win over Brown in which it didn’t drop a single game. Co-captains Patterson and Thomas Storch led the way with 9-1, 9-2, 9-1 and 9-0, 9-0, 9-1 wins, respectively.

“Dylan and I are just showing these guys the way to compete because it’s a learning process and it’s important that they learn something every day,” Storch said at the time.

Broadbent, for one, appreciated their efforts.

“Tom and Dylan were huge all year for us,” he said. “We were a pretty young team and those two guys just taught us how to compete and showed us what it takes to be a winner the entire season.”

Broadbent capped a stellar rookie campaign by finishing the season as the intercollegiate No. 9, earning him first-team All-American honors. In addition to his win over Samper, Broadbent twice knocked off Ryan Donegan, including a three-game win over the then-intercollegiate No. 4 Dartmouth sophomore in late January.

Bullock finished the season ranked two spots behind Broadbent and was joined as a second-team All-American by No. 13 Blumberg and No. 22 Patterson.

Broadbent and Bullock were also All-Ivy selections.

—Staff writer Robert C. Boutwell can be reached at boutwel@fas.harvard.edu.

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