Crimson Brushes Aside Big Green

The Harvard men’s squash team took advantage of its opponent’s youth and inexperience yesterday en route to a 9-0 sweep of the Big Green at Hanover. The Crimson defeated Dartmouth (2-1, 0-1 Ivy) in convincing fashion, losing only two games on the afternoon to opposing players.

Both games were lost in the only contested match out of the nine played. Sophomore Chessin Gertler, who played in the fourth position, rallied from being down two games to none to clinch his match in five games, keeping intact Harvard’s untarnished record of 18-0 against its first two opponents.

“[Gertler] came back in five, winning 9-7 in the fifth,” said freshman Niko Hardy, who played in the seventh position and won his match, 9-1, 10-8, 9-2. “He had a strained back from lifting weights...but he didn’t want to leave the team’s record with a blemish.”

“It wasn’t the prettiest match,” said captain Will Broadbent, who played in the second position and won, 9-1, 9-1, 9-2. “He put his head down and grinded it out. You can come out a little flat sometimes, but he finished strong and that’s what’s important.”

The Crimson is now 2-0 in its first two matches of the season, both against Ivy League opponents.

“It’s early in the season,” said Broadbent. “The success of this team this year will depend on how the freshmen—Verdi DiSesa and Niko Hrdy—perform ...[and] the freshmen are stepping up.”

And recently, they’ve had to step up, since junior Ilan Oren, who usually plays in the third position, is now resting with an injured ankle. As a result, all players below the third position have had to move up one position.

The Big Green, which has a very young team coming into this season, did not look ready to face a more experienced Harvard team that has a high proportion of juniors and seniors on its roster. Dartmouth lost four starters from last year’s team, which finished eighth in the Collegiate Squash Association and fourth in the Ivies. It now has four freshmen on its roster competing to secure starting roles.

“Dartmouth is still rebuilding its program,” said DiSesa, who played in the fifth position.

Playing in the first position for the Crimson was junior Siddharth Suchde. Junior Jason De Lierre played in the third position, junior Garnett Booth in the sixth, and junior Mihir Sheth in the eight.

Harvard will face Cornell (0-3, 0-2) on Saturday at the Murr Center, and will go on the road on Sunday to play Williams College.

—Staff writer Tony D. Qian can be reached at tonyqian@fas.harvard.edu.