SEASON RECAP: Harvard Avenges Team Losses at ISAs

For the Harvard men’s squash team, the season played out similar to years past. But this year, a member of the squad accomplished something that had not been done by a Crimson player since 1996.

Harvard decimated all contenders in its first few matchups of the season, sweeping through four teams by identical 9-0 scores.

Following the easy wins, the then-No. 2 Crimson hosted squash powerhouse Trinity, nine-time winners of the national title. In the top-two showdown, the intensity was high on both sides, and with the contest being played at the Murr Center, Harvard supporters came out in droves.

This season’s clash developed much differently than last year’s 8-1 decision in favor of the Bantams. Harvard proved it had improved, keeping the match close throughout.

The match seesawed back and forth for the entire night. Seniors Siddharth Suchde and Ilan Oren won their matches in the top two positions.

However, the competition ultimately rested on the outcome of the match at the seventh flight between sophomore Niko Hrdy and Trinity’s Supreet Singh. The Crimson almost completed the upset, but in the end, Singh bested Hrdy and gave the Bantams the 5-4 win.

In its next marquee contest of the season, Harvard met up with Princeton to decide the champion of the Ivy League. Despite taking a 3-0 lead in the contest, the Crimson could not hold on for the victory, as the Tigers stormed back and stole the title away from Harvard.

To add injury to insult, Suchde, the Crimson’s No. 1 player, sustained an ankle injury in his match against Princeton’s Mauricio Sanchez, forcing him to retire.

Trying to redeem a once-promising season, Harvard, without an Ivy title, vied for the CSA Team Championship. The Crimson breezed through the first round, defeating Western Ontario, 9-0, but Princeton proved to be troublesome once again. The Tigers won a close 5-4 match, relegating Harvard to the third-place match, where it easily defeated Yale, 9-0.

“I think it was definitely a bit sad, as we didn’t come out winning,” Suchde said. “It was bit disappointing.”

But at the Individual Championships, Oren and Suchde made deep runs in the tournament. Suchde defeated the top seed in the competition to advance to the finals, while Oren—who had not lost a single match the entire season—succumbed in the semifinals to the Tigers’ Sanchez, preventing an all-Crimson final.

“I’m very disappointed that I didn’t win,” Oren said afterwards. “[If we had met in the finals,] we both would have wanted to win really badly.”

Avenging his earlier loss, Suchde bested Sanchez, 9-2, 9-7, 8-10, 9-2, to claim Harvard’s 27th individual title and the first since Daniel Ezra in 1996.

With seven seniors on the team, the core of this year’s successful squad will be gone next season, but some players appear poised to fill their shoes.

“I think from the ones that are remaining, Colin West is most likely to play [No. 1],” Suchde said. “He could definitely challenge some of the older guys next year. [Sophomore] Verdi [DiSesa] and Niko will be playing top five instead of seven and eight. They are ready to take on more responsibility. [The team] should be in good hands.”

And to add the cherry on top, four Harvard players were named All-Ivy League, more than any other school in the conference. Oren, Suchde, West, and senior Jason De Lierre received the honor.

West, the only freshman named to the all-league team, also received the Rookie of the Year award.

—Staff writer Vincent R. Oletu can be reached at voletu@fas.harvard.edu.