Crimson Extends Winning Streak to Three with Sweep

In its first two contests after the team’s matchup against Trinity was postponed due to inclement weather, the No. 6 Harvard men’s squash team (6-2, 2-1 Ivy) has reached the .500 mark in road games for the first time this season, thanks to two solid wins against Hamilton and St. Lawrence.

“We wouldn’t classify [this weekend’s contests] as our tougher matches, but they were two solid performances,” Crimson coach Mike Way said. “We were expected to beat [the Continentals and the Saints], but you still have to get the job done.”

HARVARD 9, HAMILTON 0

Harvard capped off a strong weekend Saturday afternoon with a sweep of No. 21 Hamilton (2-10-0, 0-1 Liberty League) at the Continentals’ Little Squash Center.

“The main thing for this weekend was to keep up our concentration and intensity, because we were playing teams that were quite a bit weaker than us,” freshman Gary Power said.

A lack of home-court advantage was clearly not an issue for the Crimson this weekend, as every player in a Harvard jersey won his respective match by a score of 3-0. The Crimson cruised to its second 9-0 win of the weekend without suffering a single loss.

“To be honest, I think this past week wasn’t too much of a test for us,” Power said. “The main thing was to keep up our intensity levels after traveling. We had to drive eight hours and be ready to play, which definitely helped us prepare [for our next matches].”

Playing in the second position for Harvard for just the second time this season, captain Reed Endresen led the Crimson, dismantling his opponent by an aggregate score of 33-11, including an 11-1 win in the third set.

“Overall, I think our captain [deserves recognition],” Way said. “He has not just stepped up and shown himself to be a very good leader [off the court]. He was playing at No. 5 and he’s now playing at No. 2 on the team. He’s been showing a lot of leadership qualities as a player.”

Power also continued his winning ways over Hamilton’s top athlete. The freshman—who is currently the nation’s 10th-ranked player—took down Continentals freshman Martin Bawden in three tight sets.

The strong overall victory for Harvard included two 11-0 sets, with sophomores Alexander Ma and Jason Micas picking up perfect games for the Crimson at the No. 8 and No. 10 spots, respectively.

Though Harvard has yet to lose a match at Barnaby Courts, the Crimson now sits at 2-2 on the road.

HARVARD 9, ST. LAWRENCE 0

Harvard began this weekend’s road trip on Friday with No. 14 St. Lawrence (9-5, 2-1 Liberty League). The Crimson swept eight of its nine individual matches of the day in three sets, with the Saints picking up just one set—coming at the No. 5 individual spot.

“St. Lawrence had a big crowd,” Power said. “It was really important for us to concentrate in that type of situation, to be able to handle a crowd against us.”

In what was perhaps the most strongly contested individual matchup of the weekend, freshman Nigel Koh came back after losing his first set, 11-8, with three dominating games, including an 11-1 victory in the third set.

Freshman Brandon McLaughlin, classmate Thomas Mullaney, and sophomore Zeke Scherl won three more challenging matches, coming out on top of their respective opponents after one 12-10 match each.

“On the St. Lawrence team, the top three positions are very stong,” Way said. “Our top three players really had to step up and they did.”

Harvard’s current top three—Power, Endresen, and senior Richard Hill—went 18-0 in sets this weekend.

“[Our players] did what they had to do,” Way said. “It’s one of those situations where you rank above the other teams, and you’re expected to win. You just have to make sure you don’t get complacent, and we didn’t. You have to have a business-like approach; they had that approach and did us proud in every way.”

Though the Crimson trained through January, Harvard has played just one other contest in 2011 so far, earning an 8-1 victory over No. 8 Western Ontario two weeks ago. Though not the tightest matches, this weekend’s contests provide the Crimson with some more experience on the road, as Harvard proceeds into a difficult stretch of its season.

“The cancelled game [against the Bantams] didn’t really affect our game plan,” Power said. “We played challenge matches instead, so we were still ready to go. We have a very busy next couple of days, with four teams in eight days, and they’re all tough teams...we’ll be ready for those.”

—Staff writer Catherine E. Coppinger can be reached at ccoppinger@college.harvard.edu.