Sheth Leads Five-Man Team to Victory

The Harvard men’s squash team, having just finished the first half of its team schedule last weekend, sent ten of its players to the USSRA Five Man Team Championships this weekend in Hartford, Conn. for a final workout before the players broke for the winter holidays.

Representing the Crimson (4-0, 3-0 Ivy) on the A Team were captain Ilan Oren, freshman Colin West, seniors Garnett Booth and Mihir Sheth, and sophomore Verdi DiSesa.

On the B Team, Harvard competed with sophomore Niko Hrdy, senior Todd Ostrow, sophomore Ned Reeves, freshman Frank Cohen, and senior Brett Auerbach.

The A Team finished fifth for the Crimson after losing a second-round match to a strong Philadelphia team made up of professional players. Harvard had advanced easily into the second round by defeating a high school team 5-0.

After its loss, the Crimson won its next two matches against two separate Yale squads—the Yale A Team and the Yale Alumni Team. The B Team for the Crimson finished further back at No. 12.

“It wasn’t about the results, though we were playing to win,” said Oren, who suffered a slight injury this weekend and finished 2-2. “We wanted to get some good matches under our belts before the big matches in February.”

“We were missing a couple of our top guys,” said Sheth, referring to the absence of the team’s No. 1 player, senior Siddharth Suchde, and No. 4 senior Jason De Lierre. “We couldn’t get our best team out there, and everyone’s tired from so much play lately. But it was still a weekend for some good practice.”

Sheth, playing fourth for Harvard on its five-man squad, put on a gutsy display, winning three of his fourth matches in five games and finishing 4-0 for the weekend.

“I played the best squash I could’ve asked for,” Sheth said. “I beat a lot of players that I’ve lost to in the past.”

Harvard lost to the Philadelphia team 2-3 but then went on to beat the Yale teams by twin 3-2 margins.

Against the Yale A Team, the Crimson was down 0-2 before Sheth pulled out a crucial victory, winning 9-7 in the fifth game. Then West and Oren closed it out with one victory each.

“[West] played great this weekend and was undefeated” Sheth said. “Especially for a freshman, it’s great to see him playing such smart squash.”

“[The victories against Yale] give us a mental edge,” Sheth added. “They had their full strength while we did not, but we still beat them.”

Booth finished 2-2 for the weekend, while DiSesa finished 1-3.

“The winter break is coming up at a very good time for us,” Oren said. “A lot of our guys are either a bit hurt or tired and need the rest.”

The Crimson will be resuming its team schedule in February, when it will be playing the most crucial matches of the year against Trinity, Penn, Princeton, and Yale.

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