Crimson Captures 18th Straight Win

And the winning streak extends to 18.

In its first match of the New Year, the No. 1 Harvard women’s squash team (6-0, 3-0 Ivy) captured a 9-0 victory over No. 12 Bates (7-8, 2-3 NESCAC) at the Bates Squash Center.

Entering Wednesday’s match, no one on the Crimson squad had faced the Bobcats before, but this did little to sway the crew’s dominant play. The team did not drop a single game en route to opening the second half of its season with a win.

“The match was great,” captain Alisha Mashruwala said. “I think it was a really good experience for us and for them.”

The senior also commended her team for its strong play after over a month off from training together.

“Everyone played exceptional squash. It’s always hard coming back from a long break, and the team did a very good job.”

With sophomore Laura Gemmell, currently top-ranked in the College Squash Association (CSA) Preseason Rankings, sitting the match out to “rest a bit and train a bit,” according to Mashruwala, junior and seventh-ranked Nirasha Guruge played in the No. 1 slot.

Guruge defeated her competition, sophomore and CSA national women’s player of the week Cheri-Ann Parris, in three frames, 11-4, 11-7, 11-2.

“I was really happy with the way I played,” Guruge said. “She put up a good fight, and we had a good match.”

A Bates freshman, 83rd-ranked Ashley Brooks, also posed a challenge. Facing off against Harvard sophomore No. 17 Natasha Kingshott in the third slot, the rookie accrued the most points of the Bobcat team but still lost the matchup, 11-3, 11-8, 11-6.

The showing was impressive for Kingshott as well, who jumped up the ladder from her usual play at No. 5 to No. 3.

The key to the team’s success, according to Guruge, was its mindset prior to the match.

“Our coaches and our captain told us to not take it easy,” Guruge explained. “[So] we didn’t take the match easy. We went into it thinking we were going to do our best. I think that’s why no one had a problem.”

Mashruwala also credited the squad’s intense training regimen.

“We got back around the 10th of January,” the Mumbai, India, native said. “We’ve been using this time to work really hard. We’ve been practicing a lot…and working on specific shots…and getting our fitness back up.”

Clearly, the training worked for Mashruwala—in her match in the No. 2 position, the 13th-ranked senior dropped only two points against Bobcat Maura Neal, snagging the win, 11-0, 11-1, 11-1.

The rest of the team also put up strong numbers in the win over Bates.

In her first match of the 2010-2011 season, senior Alexandra Zindman blanked sophomore Liza Dorison at No. 9, 11-4, 11-3, 11-5.

Sophomore No. 42 Sarah Mumanachit, senior No. 9 June Tiong, and junior No. 37 Cece Cortes added three more tallies in the wins column at spots 4, 5, and 6, respectively.

Rounding out the results, senior No. 29 Bethan Williams nabbed a 3-0 victory in the No. 7 position, and sophomore No. 51 Vidya Rajan did the same at the No. 8 spot.

The 9-0 win was very encouraging, then, for a squad looking at an extremely competitive lineup in the coming weeks.

“The team went into the match really excited about getting the second half of the season started,” Mashruwala said. “It felt good to go in there and play well.”

Harvard’s next match will be the biggest test yet of the crew’s abilities: No. 3 Trinity visits the Barnaby Courts on Jan. 26.

The Bantams roster boasts a number of talented athletes, including No. 2 Pamela Hathway, who faced Gemmell last season in finals of the CSA individual championship.

“We’re going to keep training and not take the matches easy,” Guruge said.

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