SEASON RECAP: Three Teams Split Title

For the Harvard men’s squash team, the script for the 2005-2006 season was a familiar one.

The Crimson breezed its way through its first couple of matches before trying once again to knock off the team with the longest intercollegiate winning streak in any sport. And just like in years past, Harvard fell to Trinity in the regular season.

But this year, the Crimson also found itself in a bit of trouble within the generally friendly confines of the Ivy League.

Harvard finished the regular season with a 7-3 record, losing to the Bantams, 8-1, in the fifth match of the season and to Princeton, 5-4, in the regular-season finale. Trinity went on to a 19-0 season overall, the team’s eighth straight perfect year.

But while the Bantams’ dominance was to be expected, the loss to the Tigers put a slight blip on an otherwise clean Ivy slate.

The Princeton match was especially dramatic, too, as the Tigers won matches at the No. 5-9 positions while the Crimson took care of things in the No. 1-4 slots.

“We didn’t beat ourselves—we got beaten, and that’s the difference,” said coach Satinder Bajwa after the loss. “That’s what you want, these guys stepping up. It was about getting the team to start playing and doing the best it can.”

The team was paced all year by No. 1 Siddharth Suchde, who did not lose a match at a team event all season. The junior’s amazing run ended at the CSA Individual National Championship, however, when the top-seeded Suchde fell to second-seeded Yassar El Halaby of Princeton in the final, 9-2, 9-0, 9-6. It was El Halaby’s fourth title, and a bit of revenge against the man who defeated him earlier in the season.

“It was fitting that it was Sid and Yassar,” said captain Will Broadbent following the final. “They are the two best college players in the nation.”

“It got a little bit close, but he was better,” Suchde said.

After Harvard’s second loss of the season to Trinity, a 6-3 setback in the semifinals of the CSA team championships, the Crimson bounced back with a 6-3 win over Yale in the third-place game. The victory put Harvard in a three-way tie for the Ivy League title with the Bulldogs and the Tigers, marking the third straight Ivy championship for the Crimson and 36th overall.

“This [was] it for the team,” Broadbent said after the win. “We were all pretty fired up.”

—Staff writer Malcom A. Glenn can be reached at mglenn@fas.harvard.edu.