Women's Squash Knocks Off Three Top 10 Opponents

A long rest seemed to be all the No. 3 Harvard women’s squash team (7-1, 4-1 Ivy) needed to have success this weekend, defeating No. 6 Cornell (7-3, 2-2), No. 9 Columbia (7-5, 2-3), and No. 10 Stanford (4-9) at the Murr Center. The Crimson dropped just one game over the entire weekend.

Harvard extended its winning streak to four straight matches despite missing an important player: co-captain Haley Mendez. The senior suffered an injury recently that rendered her unable to participate in the weekend’s action.

“The team was pretty confident of doing well on all the matches this weekend despite Haley's injury,” junior Saumya Karki said. “Haley is one of our strongest [players] and her injury is definitely sad, but we have a great line up this year with a lot of depth, so we felt pretty good.”

“I think we were feeling strong, very ready,” added Mendez. “We were ready to play Trinity earlier in the week, but it got postponed to next week due to weather, so we were definitely ready to play come this weekend.”

HARVARD 8, STANFORD 1

The Crimson dominated the weekend, earning the last of its three victories against the Cardinal on Sunday. Looking to extend its streak of complete sweeps to four games, the team started out strong. In the end, Harvard came away with a win, but unlike in its win over Columbia earlier in the day, it would drop a few games.

Sophomore Keegan Mendez fell to Stanford’s Alex Yorke, 3-1, on court nine, but her teammates pulled out wins in the other spots to win the match.

The Crimson’s two freshmen put forth strong performances. Alyssa Mehta won her first match at the first position, defeating the Cardinals’ CC Ho, 3-0. Sue Ann Yong also defeated her opponent, 3-1, to improve her unbeaten streak this season to eight matches.

Also earning 3-0 wins for Harvard were sophomore Dileas MacGowan and juniors Michelle Gemmell, Isabelle Dowling, and Karki. The victories were the second of the day for all four players, including Karki.

“This weekend was a lot about practicing and testing some of the things I have been working on the past couple of weeks,” Karki said. “The matches were pretty straightforward and I think I did well with sticking to my game plan.”

HARVARD 9, COLUMBIA 0

In its first action of the day on Sunday, the Crimson won all nine individual matches by a score of 3-0. This was the third game in a row in which no one on the team dropped a game.

At the first spot, senior Amanda Sobhy led the charge, defeating the Lions’ Colette Sultana, moving to 4-0 on the season. On court two, sophomore Katherine Tutrone picked up a victory over Columbia’s Reyna Pacheco. That would be it for the duo, however, as both Sobhy and Tutrone did not play in the team’s second match of the day against Stanford.

Mehta and Yong picked up their first wins of the day on court three and court five, respectively.

“I think everyone played great,” Haley said. “We’ve won four matches now…. I think the team did great to get through a long weekend undefeated.”

HARVARD 9, CORNELL 0

One week after falling 9-0 to Trinity, the Big Red could not best its Ancient Eight rival on Friday, losing by the same score. The Crimson took all nine individual matches—and all by a score of 3-0. This was the second consecutive time that Harvard had won in this fashion, the first coming against No. 13 Franklin and Marshall.

“These wins are definitely a confidence booster as we enter the final two weeks of our season,” Karki said. “[They] also give us a good idea of where we stand in college squash and give us enough time to work on tying up the loose ends before nationals.”

Sohby won her third match of the season on court one, defeating Cornell senior Danielle Letourneau. In her only match of the weekend, senior Julianne Chu earned a sweep over the Big Red’s Reut Odinak at the eighth postition.

Again, the Crimson’s rookie pair had a significant impact. Foreshadowing their performances against Columbia on Sunday, Mehta won at the third spot and Yong was victorious at the fifth position.

With the win, Harvard extended its winning streak against Cornell, bringing its record in the all-time series to 21-0.

“I think the team just needs to carry this momentum to next week when we face a bigger test in Trinity,” Karki said. “The aim right now is to be mentally ready for a close contest and be in top shape physically.”

—Staff writer Katherine H. Scott can be reached at katherinescott@college.harvard.edu.