Loaded Team Returns for More

How can you top an undefeated season, a national title, and an Ancient Eight crown?

It might seem like a daunting task, but the Harvard women’s squash team has the answer: do it all again.

Coming off its stellar 2009-2010 season, the women of the Crimson squad have undoubtedly set a high bar. The crew went 12-0 on the season—without question aided by its top-to-bottom roster strength: 10 of the team’s 15 players posted undefeated records in dual season play.

Last season, Harvard took home its 17th CSA national championship, 11th Barhite Award (given to the team with the best dual record nationwide), and 12th Ivy League title. Then-rookie Laura Gemmell also earned her very own national title, beating out Trinity’s Pamela Hathway to capture the Ramsay Cup in five close games.

Harvard will kick off the new season this Friday ranked by the CSA as the team to beat—preseason polls slotted the Crimson at the top of the preliminary heap.

But the team is anything but complacent, especially after the rather unexpected outcome of CSA’s recent Ivy Scrimmages.

Held at Yale’s Brady Squash Center over the first weekend of November, the Harvard squad faced an upset at the hands of Yale; the crew dropped the match, 6-3, to finish the weekend in second place behind its New Haven host.

Under new coach Mike Way, however, the high expectations and preseason jitters will hopefully do little to distract the team from accomplishing its main goal: winning another championship.

“My job as a coach is to keep them focused on performance goals,” Way said. “Mentally, it’s a little tougher because there’s so much expectation. But if they do a good mental program, and we keep our eye on their own individual performances, that’s when we can get the results…We have to be staying…process-oriented and not outcome-oriented.”

The Crimson also enters the season very confident in its roster. The team graduated only three players last year, and three new freshmen are joining a crew that boasts experience from the bench on up.

Take, for example, senior Bethan Williams. As a 2008-2009 CSA All-American (second team), Williams rotated between the No. 8 and No. 9 positions last season. On another team, someone at her level of play could easily start at the top of the roster.

Another key player returning to the Barnaby Courts is captain and three-time All-American Alisha Mashruwala. Holding down the captain position by herself, her senior leadership will be instrumental in motivating her team on and off the court.

“I couldn’t ask for a better captain,” Way said of the veteran. “She’s a leader, she’s organized, she’s a motivator, and she doesn’t get too excited when she needs to be calm and equitable for the team.”

Senior June Tiong, junior Nirasha Guruge, and sophomore Natasha Kingshott are among a host of other talented players also making the return from last season.

Both Tiong and Guruge, for instance, have been named to the CSA All-America second team; Kingshott, in her rookie season, compiled an impressive 11-0 record at the No. 5 spot.

And finally, there’s Gemmell, who didn’t drop a single game in regular season play as she compiled an 11-0 record from the No. 1 position. Post-national competition, the rookie was 16-0 with numerous accolades under her belt: CSA Individual National Champion, All-America first team and All-Ivy League team honors, and Ivy League Player and Rookie of the Year.

Friday evening officially marks the start of the 2010-2011 season, as Harvard takes on No. 10 Brown at the Barnaby Courts. The action will continue through the weekend when Harvard faces No. 6 Stanford and No. 9 Williams in a Sunday double-header.

After the Thanksgiving break, the team will be back in action against No. 8 Dartmouth at home and then No. 7 Cornell for its first game outside of Cambridge.

Following winter break, the squad will face its toughest competition. After playing No. 12 Bates, the Crimson will face the lethal lineup of No. 3 Trinity, No. 5 Penn, No. 4 Princeton, and No. 2 Yale to finish off the regular season.

“My feeling is that Yale, Princeton, and Trinity…seem to be the three other teams along with us that I think are the strongest teams vying for top spots this year,” Way said.

Mashruwala agreed with her coach’s assessment, but her focus remains on the challenges at the present.

“[Yale and Trinity] are matches that are later in the season,” Mashruwala said. “We’re basically taking each match as it comes.”

—Staff writer Molly E. Kelly can be reached at mkelly@college.harvard.edu.