Top of the Heap

In a thrilling finish to its regular season, the No. 1 Harvard women’s squash team (9-0, 6-0 Ivy) defeated archrival No. 5 Yale (9-4, 3-3) to claim its 17th Ivy League title Saturday afternoon. Despite the Bulldogs’ home-court advantage in New Haven, the Crimson emerged victorious with a 7-2 win.

As a result of its stellar performance, Harvard also claimed the Barhite Award, presented each year to the team with the best dual performance record nationally. This marks the 11th time that the Crimson has received this award.

“It feels awesome to win, especially now being a senior,” co-captain Katherine O’Donnell said. “We’ve been so close the last three years and we finally won, so this was the perfect way to end everything out.”

Playing with a three-court system, Harvard showed its top-to-bottom strength as it made quick work of Yale.

At No. 6, sophomore Cece Cortes took three consecutive games. No. 9 freshman Sarah Mumanachit followed suit with a 3-0 victory of her own. Both women finished out the regular season with spotless individual records.

In keeping with her well-known and much-lauded consistency, freshman Natasha Kingshott extended her winning streak at the No. 5 position. She took the match 3-0, thereby ending her regular season undefeated as well.

In the No. 8 position, junior Bethan Williams kept her team’s momentum and her undefeated season going with a 3-0 sweep.

Yet, not all of the first six matches went so smoothly, as sophomore Nirasha Guruge and junior Alisha Mashruwala experienced tough losses. Despite a strong record entering the match, No. 2 Guruge fell, 3-1, to Yale’s Alia Aziz. No. 3 Mashruwala likewise could not hang on for the victory as she lost, 3-1, to Sarah Toomey.

Six matches in, the Crimson was thus 4-2, teetering on the brink of clinching the match and the Ivy League title.

The decisive match turned out to be O’Donnell’s victory at the No. 7 position. Having lost in her previous match against Princeton, O’Donnell explained how the defeat helped her prepare for her match against Yale.

“Last week, I lost on Sunday,” O’Donnell said. “So I tried to turn it into a positive so I wasn’t so complacent this week.”

Indeed, O’Donnell was anything but complacent. She was the model of efficiency, sweeping her opponent, 3-0.

Following her teammate’s exciting victory, freshman phenom No. 1 Laura Gemmell once again demonstrated why she deserves all of the hype. Winning her match, 3-0, Gemmell ended her freshman season without dropping a single game.

“I think for squash, mentality is definitely part of the game,” Gemmell said. “That’s what I’ve been trying to work on a lot this year.”

“I came in wanting to attack and take advantage of every shot,” she added.

Rounding out the day’s excitement was co-captain Johanna Snyder.

“Johanna played at No. 4 instead of No. 7 this week, so she definitely stepped up,” Harvard coach Satinder Bajwa said.

Even out of her comfort zone, Snyder easily won the match, 3-0.

Undoubtedly, a large part of the Crimson’s victory was the direct result of a roster with great depth.

“We have a very strong team,” Bajwa said. “Sometimes...certain players have a tough day and they come up a little short, but we have such a strong team that we can always count on a player to step up.”

Having put on such a strong display of athleticism at the Brady Squash Center, Harvard clearly demonstrated its superior skill level. But O’Donnell pointed out that the team’s success was not purely the result of its athletic training.

“Our team is really mentally tough,” she said. “It’s about how much you concentrate and your will to win.”

The Crimson will take its strong mentality and well-honed athletic skills on the road in two weeks when it travels to the CSA National Team Championships in New Haven.

“Now, we have to go and fulfill our overall ambition of being [national] champions,” Bajwa said.