Feb 9th ,
Cambridge MA -
On a weekend in which both Ivy titles were
decided in New England, the Harvard and Dartmouth Squash
teams were the foils, with the
Harvard Men providing the only bright spot with a win over
Penn.
Finishing off strong Ivy campaigns, the
Penn women and Princeton men swept Dartmouth and Harvard
to claim Ivy titles.
Nobody's perfect. That's
just the way it is. There are perfect combinations though,
whether it is your grandma's favorite recipe or the friendship
you've had since kindergarten. On Sunday the Princeton men
and Penn women got to experience what it feels like to be
a part of a perfect team.
IVY PERFECTION
The Princeton men clinched
the Ivy League title with a win at Harvard, with the same
scoreline they have had against every other Ivy team this
season, 9-0. Not only were they perfect in the Ivies, they
are the first Ivy team to win the title without dropping
a match.
"We won the Ivies, which for us is the number one goal," said
Princeton men's head coach Bob Callahan, "So it is wonderful
to have it happen."
Also ending the weekend with an Ivy title
in hand is the Penn women. They also earned the Dual Match
crown. The team finished the regular season 13-0.
"I'm so excited," said Penn co-captain Lauralynn Drury. "It
is actually is real now. We are actually Ivy champs. It is
such a great reward for all of our hard work."
To claim their
respective titles, the same two teams stood before Princeton
and Penn: Princeton played Dartmouth on Saturday and Harvard
on Sunday, while Penn faced Harvard first and then Dartmouth.
Both teams' matches were away.
Harvard had not played any
of their top Ivy rivals prior to Saturday, and will not face
Yale until Wednesday. This weekend was an opportunity to
get an idea of how strong the Crimson are this year.
The Harvard
men came out firing against the Quakers on Saturday, quickly
making the statement that they are a team to be reckoned
with. Only two matches went to five games, both ending in
Harvard's favor.
At the No. 3 position, Harvard's Verdi DiSesa
jumped out to a 2-love lead over Mark Froot. Froot and DiSesa
each had moments where they disagreed with calls but managed
to remain completely focused.
"It's always tough to ref a match when it's very competitive," DiSesa
said. "You can't take that part too seriously."
In the third
game Froot gained the momentum and didn't let go until he
was up 6-0 in the fifth. DiSesa returned to his aggressive
form, and evened the score. The next several minutes was
a long series of lets. Froot served multiple times, and while
he did get multiple lets, he was not able to get another
point, giving Harvard an interesting and hard fought win.
PENN - HARVARD WOMEN'S SHOWDOWN
The
Penn women fared better than their male teammates, though
they did not have an easy time by any means. With Sydney
Scott, who typically plays No. 3 on the ladder, out with
an injury, most of the team had to play up a spot. The top
of the order struggled, with only No. 1 Kristen Lange winning
for Penn in the top three, but the middle and bottom of the
order came through for Penn.
Drury won a hard fought
match against Sandra Mumanachit at No. 9. The match turned
out to be critical, as for only the second time all season
(the first being against Princeton), Penn won by only one
match.
The decisive match came down to Britt Hebden
and Johanna Snyder. Hebden made life a little easier on her
teammates by winning in three.
"I knew it would be down to me, Emily (Goodwin) or Kristen," Hebden
said. "I saw Kristen come off the court, and I knew it was
down to me and Emily. Then Emily lost and it was down to
me, and it was kind of stressful. For about two seconds I
thought, 'Okay, down to me, kind of nervous.' Then I played
well. My whole team was around the court. It felt really
good. I have never been the deciding match,
Though the Penn
women defeated Harvard, the Crimson gave an indication of
how good they are, something that only could help their confidence
as 24 hours later they had to take on No. 2 ranked Princeton.
On
Sunday, with Penn and Princeton having switched locations,
the Princeton men needed to defeat Harvard for the Ivy title,
while the Penn women needed to win at Dartmouth to ensure
sole ownership of the title.
Like the Princeton women had
done the day before, the Penn women defeated the Big Green
9-0.
"I'm really excited for the girls," said Penn women's head
coach Jack Wyant. "I think when it mattered most, the girls
played to the best of their ability. I'm happy that their
hard work paid off."
The Princeton women, whose only loss
this season going into the Harvard match was to Penn, knew
that they would have a tough match on their hands as they
were well aware of Penn's close match in Cambridge the day
before.
No. 2 Neha Kumar faced Harvard freshman
Alisha Mashruwala. Kumar quickly found herself down 2-love.
Though the former US Junior Open champ didn't appear to be
playing her best squash, Kumar did not look frazzled either.
Thanks to good decision making and her ability to slow the
match down, she was able to even the scoreline.
Up 7-1 in
the fifth, it looked like Kumar would get her comeback, but
the momentum shifted once Mashruwala scored her second point.
The crowd got behind her and you could see her confidence
growing. On Kumar's first match ball, the Harvard freshman
stretched to retrieve a shot from the back right corner,
then somehow made it to the front left to get the next shot
and save match ball. A couple of Kumar tins later and all
of a sudden Mashruwala was the one making the comeback. One
brilliant shot just above the tin followed by a stroke and
Mashruwala was serving match ball. Her wrist pump a moment
later gave away the ending.
"She's so much more experienced than I am," Mashruwala said
of Kumar. "It's my first season, and I think after the second
game I got really excited. I think the crowd helped me a
lot, so all thanks to them. In my head I was like, 'Keep
fighting. Get into the next game.' Because if I kept looking
back, that was not going to happen."
The Princeton women play
the rest of their season at home, as Howe Cup is on the Tigers'
courts. Regarding Harvard, women's head coach Gail Ramsay
was happy to get the win.
"Overall we played pretty well," she said. "It
was not our best squash. We felt pressure to go out strong
and aggressive. It is always tough to play Harvard at Harvard.
They played a tough match with Penn, so that was on the back
of our minds."
The Princeton men were unstoppable on Sunday.
They didn't drop one game, but they did have some tough moments.
"We had very close first games," Callahan said. "No.
4 David Canner was down 6-0 in the first. No. 3 David Letourneau
was down 6-0 in the first. Kimlee (Wong) had a close first
game at No. 2. Our guys were lucky to come back and then
use that momentum to win."
Canner played freshman Eliot Buchanan,
who moved from six on the roster to four since the beginning
of the season, and has also dealt with a severe ankle sprain.
"I came out very strong and very prepared," Buchanan said. "I
was moving well. I was in control and hitting all my shots.
He definitely stepped up at the end of the first game. Then
I lost 10-8. In the second and third games I lost my focus
for a little bit and wasn't moving around. My biggest weakness
today was my mental game."
END OF SEASON FOCUS
With the wins at Harvard,
the Princeton women ended their regular season 7-1 and the
men 9-1, the men's only loss coming to Trinity.
While Penn and Princeton
are the top teams going into Howe Cup, the close wins at
Harvard shows there is a bit more parity in the top women's
teams. On the men's side, Trinity and Princeton have truly
separated themselves from the other teams. The 2007-2008
intercollegiate title does not belong to Trinity yet, and
the Tigers know they have a shot at it.
"We're playing strong," said Princeton No. 2 Kimlee Wong. "We
look strong on paper as well. I wouldn't say we're the underdogs
going into Nationals."
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