No. 1 Women's Squash Takes Two Top Five Matchups

This past Wednesday marked the two-year anniversary of the last time that the No. 1 Harvard women’s squash team lost.

On Jan. 11, 2015, then-No. 3 Penn dethroned the Crimson in a 5-4 affair. Since then, Harvard has rattled off 27 consecutive wins, claimed two national championships, and generally tormented the squash world.

Last weekend loomed as a threat to the Crimson’s reign, as the squad visited the No. 2 Quakers (3-1) and No. 4 Princeton (7-1). But the threat never materialized, as Harvard (4-0) dropped its first matches of the season but still dispatched Penn and the Tigers, 7-2 and 8-1, respectively.

NO. 1 HARVARD 8, NO. 4 PRINCETON 1

A well-fought squash contest takes nine matches to decide. Teams battle for every game, and the best-of-nine competition remains in doubt until all points have actually ended.

By contrast, the typical Crimson squash event lasts five matches—the minimum number to guarantee victory.

Against Princeton on Sunday, all five of Harvard’s top players won. In fact, none of these athletes dropped a set.

Sophomore Sophie Mehta also swept at No. 7, and senior Dileas MacGowan swept at No. 9. While junior Sue Ann Yong dropped a game, she rebounded for a serviceable 3-1 victory.

Freshman Eleonore Evans was the only Crimson player to suffer a defeat. The rookie responded to a first-frame loss with an 11-5 win, but she conceded both the final games by scores of 11-8.

The most dominant matches of the day belonged to sophomore Sabrina Sobhy and senior Katherine Tutrone. In clean sweeps, the two players lost a mere 12 points each.

The overpowering team victory meant that seven players continued an undefeated start to the season. This outcome was especially impressive given the Tigers’ performance heading into the match. Princeton, which entered Sunday with a perfect record, had conceded more than two matches only once—in a 6-3 win over Stanford to open the season.

NO. 1 HARVARD 7, NO. 2 PENN 2

It’s not often that Harvard women’s squash must stage a comeback. But on Saturday, after seven Crimson players lost their first game, the top team in the nation faced the unnerving task of overcoming early deficits.

The stakes were high, too. Ranked second in the country, the Quakers would likely claim the top spot with a victory. And the usurpers would gain the extra satisfaction of ending Harvard’s long winning streak—a run that began, after all, with a Quakers victory back in 2015.

But the Crimson prevented this possibility with crucial wins at lower positions. While Sobhy and freshman Gina Kennedy lost at the top two spots, all other Harvard players won to claim the 7-2 victory.

Four of the matches went the distance. Arguably the most epic was Kennedy’s loss to Penn junior Melissa Alves. After Alves took the first two games, Kennedy roared back with 11-1 and 11-9 wins to force a decisive fifth game. That’s when Alves ended the come-from-behind bid with an 11-9 victory.

More often, though, it was Crimson athletes claiming the key points. Freshman Amelia Henley, junior Alyssa Mehta, and Tutrone all won in five games.

Not all matches featured such drama. Evans and the sophomore Mehta swept the No. 8 and No. 9 positions, respectively. And at the top spot, Penn sophomore Reeham Sedkey blanked Sobhy, including an 11-1 final game.

Sophomore Kayley Leonard appeared at risk of a similar fate when she dropped her first game, 11-9. But Leonard rebounded to win the next three games and the overall match.

Likewise, at No. 7, Ann Young conceded the first game but proceeded to run off the next three—in this case by scores of 11-4, 11-2, and 11-3.

—Staff writer Sam Danello can be reached at sam.danello@thecrimson.com.