Harvard Easily Breezes Past Cornell

The No. 2 Harvard men’s squash team extended its unbeaten streak in individual matches to 27 on Saturday by defeating No. 7 Cornell 9-0 in its home opener, improving to 3-0 on the young season.

The Big Red (1-4, 0-3 Ivy) took four games from Crimson players on the afternoon, and forced a five-game match at the second position against junior Jason De Lierre, but ultimately could not garner a single win.

“The teams we play at the beginning of the year are a lot weaker than us,” said freshman Niko Hrdy, who played at the sixth flight and won his match, 9-0, 9-7, 9-2. “A lot of it is making ourselves better as opposed to just winning.”

“I didn’t play that well,” he added. “If I played Trinity [or other teams of that quality] I’m not going to win.”

In the only close match played at the second position, De Lierre won the first two games, 9-4, 9-5, but Cornell’s Matthew Serediak staged a comeback, winning the next two games, 9-4, 9-2. De Lierre righted the ship in the last game, clinching the game and the match with a lopsided score of 9-1.

At No. 7, junior Mihir Sheth lost the first game, 7-9, but wore down his opponent down the stretch, winning the following three games, 9-5, 9-3, 9-3. At No. 8, senior Ryan Abraham dropped a hard-fought second game to Michael Gelinas of the Big Red—a game in which the score was tied at 8-8 and 9-9, and eventually won by Gelinas—but recovered to win the next two games and the match, 9-6, 9-10, 9-1, 9-6.

All other Harvard players swept their opponents in three games: freshman Verdi DiSesa played at the third position, junior Garnett Booth played at the fourth, sophomore Chessin Gertler at the fifth, and junior Todd Ostrow at the ninth.

“It shows that we’re progressing here,” said captain Will Broadbent, who defeated his opponent, 9-3, 9-0, 9-4 at No. 1. “We’re playing well, we’re getting better every match, and we feel very special about this year...whether we win the Ivy League title or the national championship remains to be seen, but we’re coming together as a team and that’s most important, and that will bode well for us come February.”

“Today we were the superior team and we showed it,” Harvard coach Satinder Bajwa said. “This team is playing as a team, and that part is the best part it...nobody let up, everybody played like they were playing in the championship match. Our goal is to bring a team together in an individual sport.”

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