Crimson Extends Losing Streak, Falls to Yale, 6-3

The Harvard women’s squash team continues to push the top teams in the country to their limits but falls short of success.

The Crimson lost 6-3 to Yale (11-2, 4-2 Ivy) last night in New Haven in its regular season finale.

The loss marks Harvard’s fourth straight defeat.

In the past 8 days the Crimson (5-4, 3-3) has also gone down to No. 3 ranked Trinity, No. 1 ranked Penn, and No. 2 ranked Princeton.

“It’s never fun to come so close and lose, but we don’t have time to dwell on the negative,” assistant coach Christopher Smith said.

The players will try to use the lessons learned from the losing streak at the Howe Cup—the collegiate squash team national championships coming up Feb. 22-24.

“Losing the past four matches is really good motivation going into the Howe Cup,” sophomore No. 3 Katherine O’Donnell said.

The Crimson got off to a slow start, losing all three of its first set of matches. O’Donnell lost in four games, 9-7, 7-9, 9-4, 9-0.

Freshman No. 6 Alexandra Zindman fought hard but went down in three games, 10-8, 9-6, 10-8.

In the No. 9 spot, sophomore Sandra Mumanachit sent her match to the fifth set, but she too ended up losing, 0-9, 10-8, 9-4, 7-9, 9-7.

In a hole, Harvard managed to rally and take two of three in the second set of matches, keeping alive the possibility of coming out of New Haven with a win.

Sophomore No. 8 Charlene Neo lost her first game 9-0, but came back to win her match in four games.

Freshman No. 5 Bethan Williams also defeated her opponent, winning 9-8, 7-9, 9-3, 9-1. Williams is now 8-1 on the season.

The only loss of the group came at No. 2 with freshman Alisha Mashruwala going down 9-3, 9-1, 2-9, 9-0.

Behind 4-2 heading into the final three matches, the Crimson knew that it had to win all of them.

However, only injured captain Supriya Balsekar was able to succeed.

Playing down in the No. 7 spot, the senior came out with a convincing three game victory in which she only dropped three points.

Facing the Bulldogs’ Miranda Ranieri, perhaps the top college player in the country, Harvard freshman No. 1 June Tiong managed to win a game, but still came out on the wrong end, losing 9-5, 4-9, 9-4, 9-5.

Sophomore Johanna Synder won her first game 9-7 in the No. 4 spot, but then lost a close game 10-8, and went on to lose the match 7-9, 10-8, 9-2, 9-3, 4-9.

The Crimson lost two five-game matches on the night.

While the losing skid is not how Harvard would have envisioned the end to its season, the Crimson can take heart in how closely it played each of the top four teams in the country.

“We just keep coming so close,” Balsekar said. “A lot of teams have been surprised by how far we’ve pushed them.”

Mashruwala echoed her captain’s sentiment.

“We started the season losing to Penn [in a scrimmage] 9-0, so our improvement has really been evident the past few days.”

The Crimson will now look to put the past week behind them and turn their focus to the national championships.

“We’re fired up for the Howe Cup,” Syner said. “Coach Smith told us that our new motto is ‘three games to glory.’”

Winning those three matches would be enough to hand Harvard the trophy.

“Nobody wants to play Harvard at the nationals,” Smith said. “We’re a national championship caliber team.”

—Staff writer Jay M. Cohen can be reached at jaycohen@fas.harvard.edu.