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Men’s Squash Men’s Squash Wins Second Straight Championship
By eliot min Crimson Staff Writer
Ripping a volley down the backhand side, sophomore Victor Crouin watched as his oppo nent, No. 3 University of Pennsylvania’s Andrew Douglas, made a desperate stab at the ball in the back corner. When his re turn fell short of the front wall, Crouin turned towards the roaring crowd and thumped his chest in triumph.
Crouin had just come out on top in a grueling hour-long af fair that saw him save three game balls to win the fourth game, 16-14, and secure a 3-1 victory for the Crimson in its first seed matchup. It was one of Harvard’s six victories against the Quakers as they beat their Ivy League counterpart, 6-1, se curing their second straight national championship this past weekend.
The Crimson ends the sea son on a 33-match win streak — it has also won its last 19 home matches.
According to Crouin, stay ing focused during the fourth game of his match, which last ed upwards of twenty minutes, required immense mental strength.
“At some point, it’s not [just about] skills and technique,” Crouin said. “It’s just who wants it the most and who can like deal with the pressure and the mental side better.”
“In that last game, I just told myself to keep going and just stay positive with myself [what ever] the score was, and just keep fighting,” Crouin added.
Crouin’s marathon match was a spectacle on the final day of the tournament, but Har vard’s victory was buoyed by strong performances up and down the ladder. The Crim son had actually clinched the victory during the final stag es of Crouin’s match, when junior Adam Corcoran defeated UPenn’s Wil Halen to secure Harvard’s fifth victory and its championship title.
Senior co-captain Sean Hughes secured the first vic tory of the day for the Crimson with a 3-0 victory at the fifthseed pairing. First year Ayush Menon, playing at ninth seed, secured Harvard’s second win with a 3-0 steamrolling of his Quaker opponent. Sophomore Marwan Tarek put the Crim son within striking distance of the title with a sweep of his own at the second pairing, giving it a 3-0 lead over the Quakers. Ju nior Sam Scherl set the stage for Corcoran’s clincher with a 3-1 victory at the fourth-seed matchup.
According to Scherl, the team’s shared sense of responsi bility was instrumental to their performance this past week end.
“With weekends like this, we always take it one match at a time,” Scherl said. “And I think everyone just focused on their match. And we didn’t want any one to feel like their match was expendable. We wanted every one to feel like their match was the one that was going to decide it. And I think everyone real ly took that on and had a sense of personal responsibility. Like, ‘I’m not going to be the one to lose, I’m going to be the one to get us another point on the board’.”
Several strong opponents stood in the way of Harvard’s quest for the championship. Before facing off against the Quakers, it had to fight its way through eighth-seed Drexel in the quarterfinals and fourthseed Princeton in the semifi nals. However, the Crimson efficiently cut their way through
MA KING A RACKET Men’s squash defeated Princeton this weekend to secure their second straight championship. The team ends the season on a 33-match win streak. owen a. berger—Crimson photographer
both matches, securing backto-back 9-0 wins to come into the finals rested and ready to rumble.
“We were really focused on getting every match done as clinically as possible,” Scherl said.
Harvard has experienced sustained levels of success over the past few seasons, but get ting to win the trophy in front of the home crowd was especial ly meaningful for the team, according to Crouin and Scherl.
“I just want to thank all the parents and fans and fans of Harvard for coming or even watching on the live stream,” Crouin said. “I think it was a very successful event here at Harvard, and it will probably be the highlight of many of our years. It’s not every day that we can play with such a deep crowd and so I think the guys deserve it and we’re really happy to win it home especially.”
The victory at home was es pecially sweet for the Crimson’s senior players, who just missed out on the title at home their freshman year.
“It’s kind of a cycle for our seniors, a nice ending to their college squash careers,” Scherl said. “They lost it here their freshman year in a brutal bat tle and to be able [to come home during] their senior year and clinch it and win a final nation al championship I think is really meaningful for them and the whole team. So we’re just so ex cited to be able to perform in front of all our friends and sup porters.”
With the victory, Harvard closes out another phenome nal year under the leadership of Head Coach Mike Way, As sociate Head Coach Hameed Ahmed, and Assistant Coach Luke Hammond. The Crimson will head into next season as the reigning National Champion for the second consecutive year.
This Friday, several Harvard players will make their way down to the University of Penn sylvania for individual nationals, where they will compete against the nation’s strongest collegiate players. More infor mation will be released closer to the date of the tournament.
eliot.min@thecrimson.com
Women’s Ic e Ho ey Women’s Ice Hockey Defeats Yale in Triple Overtime
By isabel A. levin Crimson Staff Writer
As the clock wound down in the third period, Harvard held a 3-2 lead over Yale. Then, with 14.1 seconds remaining in reg ulation, Bulldog senior defender Saroya Tinker executed a shot from the point which Dal ton successfully redirected in the air, steering the puck past Crimson sophomore goaltender Lindsay Reed’s shoulder to send the game into overtime.
For the subsequent two twenty-minute overtime pe riods, Harvard (18-13-1, 15-6- 1 ECAC) and Yale (17-15-0, 13- 9-0 ECAC) fought an even ly matched, scoreless battle. While both teams fired pucks towards the net, all either sailed wide, rang iron, or were blocked by the goaltender. Neither team incurred a penalty. The contest appeared locked in an endless
3-3 tie.
Then, at the 17:21 mark in the third overtime, junior for ward Becca Gilmore redirected captain Kat Hughes’ shot into the net, sending Harvard to the Conference semifinals. Af ter over 100 long, hard-fought minutes of hockey, the Crimson emerged victorious.
“We were able to get a quick shot on net, Kristin [Della Ro vere] didn’t let up on the play, and Kat worked really hard to get [the puck] out of the corner, and after the shot, I was able to just get up on the net and get the puck and kind of shoot my own rebound,” Gilmore said. “Not a fancy goal but just getting a lot of traffic to the net.”
Gilmore was named ECAC Player of the Week for her com bined four goals and one assist during the ECAC Quarterfinals, including the series winner.
The conference quarterfi nals this past weekend featured a best-of-three series against the Bulldogs. Harvard went 2-0 against Yale in the regu lar season, though going into Friday’s game, the two teams hadn’t met since Dec. 6. The Crimson emerged victorious in game one, though it faltered in an overtime loss in Saturday’s game two. Harvard entered Sunday’s game looking to elim inate Yale and advance to the conference semifinals.
At the game’s onset, posses sion constantly shifted between the Crimson and the Bulldogs as each team struggled to gain the edge on the ice. After a scoreless first period, the mo mentum shifted in the second when both teams received si multaneous penalties. 48 seconds later, sophomore forward Kristin Della Rovere took a long shot down the ice which Yale goaltender Gianna Meloni bat ted behind the net. Della Rovere raced forward, giving the Bull dogs no time to regroup as she intercepted a Yale defender be hind the net and stole the puck, wrapping around the backside of the goal and slipping the puck past an open post. The unassist ed tally put Harvard up 1-0 with 16:57 to go in the second.
However, 6:25 into the sec ond stanza, the Bulldogs responded with a score of their own. Yale sophomore forward Charlotte Welch skated into the Crimson’s zone before complet ing a short pass back to fellow sophomore forward Claire Dal ton, who was following just behind her. Dalton deftly received the puck and found twine by nailing a hard shot past Har vard goaltender Lindsay Reed. Welch, who had the assist, also notched three scores in Satur day’s game two.
Penalties characterized Sat urday’s contest, with the two teams combining for 41 total penalty minutes.
However, in Sunday’s re match, the first penalty did not arrive until the final second of the first stanza, when Yale firstyear forward Grace Lee headed to the box for checking. While Sunday yielded only 14 total penalty minutes, the matchup produced three power-play goals.
9:38 into the third period, Yale senior forward Kirsten Nergaard headed to the penalty box for roughing. Della Rovere capitalized on the power play opportunity with her second score of the day, receiving a pass from junior forward Keely Moy and shooting the puck through traffic to put the Crimson up 2-1. “Maryna [Macdonald] did a great job of keeping the puck in, and Keely just came around the net with the possession and gave me a perfect pass that I was able to bury with a shot,” Della Rovere explained, adding that, “having the man advantage and knowing you have more time with the puck is very useful.”
The Bulldogs responded less than three minutes later with a power-play goal of their own. After sophomore defend er Maryna Macdonald received a two minute minor for high sticking, Yale launched a flur ry of attempts in front of the net, culminating in Lee sliding the puck past Reed to even the score. Welch added her second assist of the day on the play.
Harvard’s second pow er-play goal arrived after Welch went to the box for checking. With 1:16 left in the third, Moy controlled a pass from junior forward Brooke Jovanovich directly in front of the net and fired the puck past Meloni to give the Crimson a 3-2 lead late in regulation.
However, the game was far from over, as Yale’s late tying goal would send the game into over 42 minutes of overtime.
“There were some very spe cial moments just getting ready to go back out there,” said Della Rovere about the atmosphere in the locker room between over time periods. “I think that everyone in the locker room knew that we were going to come out successful, so we were just try ing to keep the energy high and keep working hard.”
Indeed, the team’s persever ance and tenacity paid off with Gilmore’s game-winning goal. “That was probably one of the best wins I’ve been a part of in my Harvard hockey career,” Gilmore said.
Harvard will head to Ithaca to face host and one-seed Cor nell on Saturday, March 7 at 1 p.m. in the ECAC Conference Semifinals.
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