Crimson Takes Narrow Victory Over Big Red

It could have gone either way. With the 4-3 score favoring No. 6 Cornell (2-2, 1-2 Ivy), the No. 5 Harvard men’s squash team’s undefeated streak looked to be in jeopardy. Two tight matches later, freshman Jason Michas and senior Alex Lavoie allowed the Crimson to pull away with a 6-3 win.

“The 6-3 looks convincing, but it could have easily been 6-3 to either team,” Harvard coach Satinder Bajwa said. “I think we outplayed and outperformed Cornell on the day and managed to get this win, but it could have easily turned Cornell’s way.”

For the Crimson, Saturday’s win not only continued its undefeated season, but allowed Harvard to prove its dominance against a team that has always provided a challenge.

“[Last year], we lost in the season to them, but we beat them in the National Playoffs,” said junior Richard Hill. “Coming into Saturday, we were confident we could come up with a big win, but we needed all nine players to step up.”

The weekend’s matchup against the Big Red had no impact on the national rankings, but it did help the Crimson raise its prominence in the squash world.

“It wouldn’t have mattered so much if we had lost in the end,” Michas said. “It would have put us into a different position going into Nationals, but winning showed a lot of other people who think they have the opportunity to beat Harvard that we are really here to stay.”

Junior J. Reed Enderson began the Crimson’s ultimate victory with a 3-0 win over Cornell’s Charlie Wagner at the No. 4 position, but the Big Red quickly tied the score after beating co-captain Frank Cohen.

No. 8 William Ahmed also lost to his opponent in a five game back-and-forth match, but Hill playing as the No. 2 easily handled his opponent to even the score, 2-2.

“We knew we were going to come up against very difficult approaches,” Hill said.

The pressure from Cornell continued as rookie Zeke Scherl fell at the No. 3 slot again, giving the Big Red a one-game lead, but No. 9 Alexander Ma came from behind to even back the score. Co-captain Colin West, Harvard’s top player who has yet to lose a game this season, picked off Alex Domenick to give the Crimson a shaky 4-3 lead.

Then came Michas and Lavoie’s wins.

“[Michas and Lavoie] were playing the two deciding matches at the same time,” Hill said. “They overcame the pressure of their opponents and came up big when we needed them the most.”

Michas began his match minutes before Lavoie but quickly fell in the first two games to Arjun Gupta, one of the top squash players in Canada.

“Jason’s opponent was a very tough player, very talented, great racquet work, but Jason stuck to his game,” Hill said. “He basically refused to give up. He fought for every point, and he came up with that victory in the end.”

“I didn’t really believe that I could win because he was just really doing a lot of stuff better than I was,” Michas said. “In the second game, I saw him keeling over a little bit, and I knew at that point I could go on and win the rest of the match mostly on my fitness and being able to last a little bit longer.”

With Gupta showing signs of fatigue going into the third game, Michas took control, finishing 11-6, 11-3, 11-9.

“It was probably his best squash victory, and he did it on the right day,” Bajwa said.

No. 7 Lavoie began his match with a little more power than Michas, winning both the first and third game, 12-10, but he lost his second and fourth games by identical scores of 5-11. Coming into the final points, Lavoie cruised to an 11-8 win, giving Harvard its 6-3 victory.

Going into winter break, Bajwa emphasized the need the Crimson to stay focused.

“I always say when you lose, be happy because you learned, you reflect on your loss and that makes you better,” he said. “But when you win, be cautious, because you’ve got to find out how you won or how you need to do it again. We’ve got to work as hard as we’ve been working since the season started, and we cannot now let the break take us back a step.”

With over a month until Harvard faces powerhouse Rochester, the Crimson will attempt to continue its momentum and undefeated status.

“We’re just going to carry over everything we’ve done up to this point and try to pull out some big wins,” Michas said. “Our win against Cornell shows that we are very capable of beating a lot of other teams, and that’s just what we are going to try to do.”

—Staff writer Alex Sopko can be reached at sopko@fas.harvard.edu.