Sports

WEEKEND EVENT SCHEDULE

FRIDAY ______________________________________ Women’s Ice Hockey vs. No. 2/4 Cornell 5:00pm, Bright-Landry Hockey Center

SATURDAY ______________________________________ Men’s Volleyball vs. Mount Olive 2:00pm, Malkin Athletic Center

Men’s Basketball @ Yale 5:00pm, Payne Whitney Gymnasium Women’s Basketball vs. Brown 4:00pm, Lavietes Pavilion

SUNDAY ______________________________________ Women’s Water Polo vs. St. Francis 9:15 am, Blodgett Pool

Men’s and Women’s Squash @ Yale 1:00 pm, Brady Squash Center

MEN’S WRESTLING Suspense Reigns as Harvard Falls to Princeton, Penn

By NICHOLAS DALEY CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

In front of passionate home crowds in the Malkin Athletic Center, Harvard wrestling (1- 8, 1-5 EIWA) dropped two difficult matches against league rivals Princeton and Penn.

Up against the 16th-ranked Tigers on Friday night, the Crimson was energized and showed no signs of backing down. Although Harvard found itself down early after a clinical performance from Princeton’s Pat Glory, number three in the nation at 125 pounds, who started off the evening with a pin, the competition was far from over. In the third match, junior Lukus Stricker came up with a major victory, coming from behind in the final period to beat Princeton’s Marshall Keller 8-6.

Senior Aaron Kruk followed him up by holding on for a tight 3-1 victory at 149 to bring the match to 9-6.

With a chance to even the match, senior captain Hunter Ladnier took the mat to face Quincy Monday, the fourthranked 157-pounder in the nation.

“That was a big match,” Harvard coach Jay Weiss said. “It didn’t start out great - Hunter got down, but he just kept at it. That was one of the best matches I’ve seen Hunter wrestle.”

Late in the third period, with Monday barely clinging to a lead and appearing fatigued, Princeton challenged a takedown near the edge of the mat, giving Monday an extra two points, and — more importantly — a chance to rest.

Ladnier scored a late takedown to bring the score within one, but ran out of time, losing 9-8. Tempers flared, with one Crimson coach yelling and shoving his finger in the direction of the Princeton bench, but the Tigers had already secured a six point cushion, a lead they wouldn’t give up for the rest of the match.

Harvard’s pair of Freshman phenoms, No. 17 165 Phil Conigliaro — a Massachusetts native wrestling in front of a number of his high school coaches and teammates — and No. 10 Heavyweight Yaraslau Slavikowsi, took care of business as usual, each securing comfortable decisions. Princeton nonetheless pulled away for a 27-12 victory.

The next night against Penn, Stricker almost secured another big win for the Crimson to start things off, but the Quakers’ 19th-ranked 141 Doug Zapf stole a 3-2 win in the final seconds. Penn secured a major decision in the 149 bout, but a strong 14-1 major from Ladnier followed by a comfortable 11-4 victory for Conigliaro tied the match at an even 7-7.

The Crimson continued to stay within arms length thanks to wins by Mike Doggett and Slavikowski. But with Harvard down by six and needing wins in its final two bouts to avoid the loss, Penn’s national No. 8 125 Michael Colaiocco proved to be too much, earning a major decision that put the Crimson away for good.

It has been a season of ups and downs so far for the Crimson. The team has racked up three individual tournament wins (two from Conigliaro and one from Ladnier) and 17 topeight finishes overall, and posted an impressive team showing at the prestigious Midlands Tournament, finishing 15th in a

PINNED DOWN Harvard’s wrestling team fell to Princeton and Penn this past weekend. Despite a lack of success in dual meets, the Crimson has amassed impressive performances at tournaments, including three individual wins and 17 top-eight finishes. ZING GEE—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

field of 35 that included five of the top ten teams in the nation and ten of the top 25.

But Harvard has also found wins hard to come by in dual meets, hobbled by injuries and unable to compete with the deep lineups of some of the best teams in the nation, like No. 4 Arizona State and No. 11 Iowa State. Despite its losing record, the Crimson have reason to feel optimistic about their year thanks to the starpower of a team built for postseason tournaments.

“Our young guys are competing hard and at a high level, obviously with two guys ranked in the top 15, but I think there’s more to it,” Weiss said. We’re obviously a better tournament team, just with our lineup the way it is right now… I like where we’re at.”

With a weekend off from competition coming up, Harvard is in the midst of their most difficult week of training as they look forward to finishing the dual season strong and delivering at EIWAs.

But their season likely won’t end there; in Conigliaro and Slavikowski, they have a chance to make a splash on college wrestling’s biggest stage.

“The goal is obviously to win a title, to place in the NCAA tournament, to be an All-American,” Weiss said. “That’s on their mind for sure.”

nicholas.daley@thecrimson.com

TENNIS Harvard Captures Commanding Wins on Home Courts

By DAVID ALEY CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

On Super Bowl Sunday, the Harvard men’s and women’s tennis teams were far from focused on the primetime event later in the day. On their minds was the goal to rattle off more victories and keep the momentum going into later crucial matchups. And the focus paid off, as the Crimson teams dominated their competition in quick fashion. Harvard’s women tennis team (3-1, 0-0 Ivy League) faced off against UMass-Amherst in a Sunday morning contest and earned a clean 4-0 sweep. The match started off with two wins on the doubles court, with a duo of senior captain Natasha Gonzalez and sophomore Rachel Lim winning their matchup 6-4, and the pairing of two firstyears, Kayla Leschly and Mihaela Marculescu, also defeating another UMass duo 6-0. “We’ve been trying out some new teams and we put in some first-years which is exciting,” said Gonzalez of the doubles pairings. “Definitely going to keep working on [our doubles play], but it’s really exciting to see all of the success.”

The success kept coming on the singles court, where senior captain Lexi Milunovich rapidly took down her opponent in straight sets, 6-0, 6-0. Gonzalez followed up with a victory, but it was freshman Sophia Ho who eventually secured the Crimson triumph, winning against her opponent, 6-2, 6-0.

“Our team is very young, so it’s nice to see everyone stepping up. It obviously bodes well for future years as well,” Gonzalez said.

The captain also noted that, because of the experience gained from the fall matches and the time the team has spent together off the court since the

start of the school year, the squad has grown very close, making it much easier to stay focused and keep rattling off victories.

“We’re still taking everything match-by-match, and everyone has certain little things in their game that they’re working on improving,” Gonzalez said.

Next up for the Harvard women is the ECAC tournament in New York City, where they look to continue their hot streak coming in as the number one seed.

The Crimson men (6-0, 0-0 Ivy League) entered Sunday with an abundance of momentum but faced one of their biggest threats yet to their undefeated streak with a home double-header. But even with the extended playing time, Harvard refused to slow down.

Earlier Sunday afternoon, the Crimson men faced off against the Rice University Owls. After dropping doubles in the previous two matches against BYU and Minnesota, Harvard was keen on securing the early point against the Owls. The duo of first-years Henry von der Schulenberg and junior Robert Wrzesinski defeated a Rice duo in a decisive 6-4 win, and first-year Ronan Jachuck and sophomore Brian Shi helped to secure the point on the first court with a 6-2 win.

“We’ve been trying to be more aggressive at the net and take more chances,” said freshman Alan Yim in regards to doubles play. “I think we’ve also been getting more comfortable with our partners. We’ve been rusty on a few skills, but after this week of practice, our work is starting to show on the court. Seeing anyone up on a court, especially after winning the doubles point, is a huge confidence booster and takes a lot of pressure off guys.”

The Harvard men continued their dominance through singles play, sweeping every single matchup en route to a 7-0 win, after Jachucks 6-3, 6-2 win to clinch the match.

“The older guys have been really good mentors to us freshmen. They’ve brought a really high level of energy to practice so that when we go into matches, we’re ready,” Yim said.

Later on in the day, the Crimson faced off against Bryant University. Even with only a modest amount of time between the matches, the Harvard men came out firing.

“We only had an hour break [in between matches], so we just relaxed, had some food, laughed a bit and then went back out on the court to warm-up again,” von der Schulenberg said. “It’s a short break, but it helps to stay focused. Having too long a break can put you off.”

Once again, the Crimson secured the doubles point, this time with a duo of von der Schulenberg and senior captain Logan Weber winning by a score of 6-0, and another pairing of sophomore Steven Sun and sophomore Harris Walker securing the point with a win by a score of 6-2.

Starting off singles play, von der Schulenberg scored the second point for Harvard, finishing with a statement 6-0, 6-1 win, followed by Walker and Jachuck shortly shutting the door on the match with resounding 6-2, 6-0 and 6-2, 6-1 wins, respectively.

“At the start of the season, we wanted to take things matchby-match,” von der Schulenberg said. “But now we’re more motivated and ready to go to Nashville [for the next match] and then the week after we have our ECACs, which has been one of our season goals to win.”

The Crimson look to keep it rolling in the coming weeks, and if the future matches are anything like the past few matches, it is hard to imagine the team slowing down anytime soon.