Gemmell, Harvard Defeat Big Green

The scandal and controversy that surrounded last year’s matchup was absent last night in Harvard’s 9-0 sweep over Dartmouth, but it was certainly not forgotten.

Last season, the women’s squash team was subjected to a series of inappropriate slurs and derogatory remarks aimed at them from two Big Green frats in the crowd at its game in Hanover, N.H. The language was so offensive that Dartmouth President Jim Yong Kim wrote a letter of apology to University president Drew G. Faust and both squash teams.

“We were determined, as was the Dartmouth coach, [to have] the behavior [be] at the standard that it absolutely should be at, and it was,” said Harvard men’s squash coach Mike Way on this year’s rematch at the Murr Center. “I’m extremely impressed by the sportsmanship on both sides.”

Needless to say, without a trace of any bad blood in the air from last year’s match-up, the first-ranked Crimson (4-0, 2-0 Ivy) was able to pull out its overwhelming victory without a hitch.

Losing just one game the entire night, the Crimson, in the words of its top player, sophomore Laura Gemmell, “dominated” the Big Green (1-2, 0-1) in nearly every aspect of the match.

“It’s an important win because we want to win the Ivy League title, and so we had to beat Dartmouth,” Gemmell said. “They’re not our main rivals in the Ivy League—we have Princeton and Yale—but they’re a pretty strong team.”

Despite Gemmell’s confidence in her undefeated team, Way noted that while Harvard’s talent was certainly superior to its opponent, some players faltered in their mental performance.

“There were a couple who didn’t play mentally well at the beginning, but then pulled it out,” Way said. “[Junior Cece Cortes] had to pull herself together, [captain Alisha Mashruwala] did, and Laura didn’t play well mentally either. I always tell the players, ‘If you don’t have your A game, then you have to learn how to win with your B game. And we had some of those cases tonight.’”

In the No. 1 position, Gemmell, ranked as the best player in the nation, faced off against Big Green sophomore Valeria Wiens, also ranked among the top 10 players in the country.

Leading the team in a suitable fashion, Gemmell swept Wiens in three games, 11-7, 13-11, 11-7. Gemmell called it her toughest match of the season so far.

“The last schools we played…their number ones were strong, but not nearly as strong as her,” said Gemmell, who is undefeated in games for the season.

The match was characterized by a series of runs, best illustrated in the second game when Gemmell held Wiens at match point from a five-point deficit.

In the No. 3 slot,  Mashruwala’s mental hiccups early in her play cost Harvard its only loss of the night, as the senior was narrowly defeated, 9-11, by Dartmouth sophomore Corey Schafer.

“I was a little inconsistent in the beginning,” Mashruwala said. “I lost some patience during the long points. I went for too much too soon.”

But, fortunately for Mashruwala, she managed to bounce back and eventually claim the match, 3-1, by going on the offensive and using Schafer’s patient playing style to her advantage.

“She’s a really defensive player, and I’m very offensive...so it was just me playing my game, which is a lot of attacking from the middle and the front and holding the ball.”

With its fourth straight 9-0 victory under its belt, the Crimson have coasted through the season thus far. Way emphasized that games such as last night’s are merely building blocks toward the Ivy League title.

“Right now, what do these matches do? They build confidence,” Way said. “There’s so many things that go into confidence building, but nothing beats winning.”