Squash National Champion Transfers To Stanford

Harvard squash phenom Lily H. Lorentzen, an All-American who was crowned national champion as a freshman last year, has transferred out of Harvard and will ply her trade with the Stanford Cardinal next year.

Lorentzen, who would have graduated in 2009, announced her decision in an e-mail to her teammates in early June.

Her departure comes as a blow to the squash team, which loses its best player only months after winning the Ivy League title. Lorentzen, a four-time under-19 U.S. Junior National Champion, was named both Ivy League Rookie of the Year and Ivy League Player of the Year last season.

Senior Kyla Grigg, the returning team captain, remained optimistic despite the loss.

“It will definitely change the team, because you grow quite close to someone—but on the other end you make the best of it and work as hard as you can and do as well as you can [next season].”

“I think it was a surprise for most of the team because that’s just the way she chose to do it—keep it to herself until she had a final decision,” said Grigg.

Teammate Jennifer Blumberg, a junior, said that the timing of the announcement made it difficult to assess its impact on her fellow players.

“It’s hard to gauge, because when Lily sent out the e-mail announcing her leaving, everyone was already on summer holidays,” she wrote in an e-mail.

“This team will be affected because she is one of our top players, but the Harvard team is strong and will continue to excel despite the loss of one player” she added.

The e-mail sent by Lorentzen to her teammates did not go into detail about her decision-making process, though Stanford squash coach Mark Talbott did speculate on the reasons behind the transfer.

Talbott said that Stanford may have been Lorentzen’s top choice, but that it did not have a full, intercollegiate varsity women’s squash program until this past fall. He said Lorentzen may have never gone to Harvard at all if the University had elevated its program from the club level sooner.

Talbott said that Lorentzen’s mother and sister both graduated from Stanford, and that a second sister is currently enrolled there as well.

“I was surprised when Lily approached me [about a transfer] but not shocked as she has some ties at Stanford,” he said.

According to the team’s website, Stanford does not currently offer athletic scholarships for squash.

—Staff writer Nicholas A. Ciani can be reached at nciani@fas.harvard.edu.