Sports

Weekly Recap SCORES

Men’s Squash vs. Tuf s W, 8-1 ___________________________________________________________ woMen’s fencing Vs. bC , 16-11 ___________________________________________________________ Wo en’s ice hockey vs. BC L, 3-1 ___________________________________________________________ en’s tennis Vs. Vanderbi , 4-3 ___________________________________________________________ wo en’s water polo Vs. s . fran is (pa.) W, 11-5 __________________________________________________________ en’s fencing Vs. b W, 20-7 ___________________________________________________________ wo en’s tennis vs. penn W, 4-1 ___________________________________________________________

W m n’ Squa h Harvard Lengthens Streak for 79 Consecutive Wins

By Eli t Min Cr imson Staff Wr iter

After bursting out to a commanding 2-0 lead over her opponent, No. 3 Trinity College’s Nanna Carleke, Harvard junior Hannah Craig fell just short in the third and fourth games. In the decisive fifth game, Craig responded with a dominat ing showing, overwhelming Carleke with an 11-2 victory to secure the seventh seed match up for the Crimson. It was one of Harvard’s eight victories in its 8-1 romping of the Bantams on Feb. 5.

With her gutsy win against Carleke, Craig continued her dominance as a member of the Crimson—she has yet to drop a match in her three years on the Harvard squad. Co-captain Gina Kennedy, senior, bounced back from a first game loss to win her match, 3-1, at the first pairing and extend her personal win streak to 36.

Senior Eleanore Evans ral lied from 0-2 down to win the fifth-seed contest and her 11th victory of the season. At the second seed dual, senior Ame lia Henley won a 3-0 victory to bring her win streak to 46.

According to Craig, although Trinity is one of the more chal lenging match-ups for the Crimson, she was able to keep cool and execute her shots under pressure.

“[The match] definitely wasn’t easy at all,” Craig said. “It’s always a privilege to play at Trinity and you never know what to expect especially be cause they produce such large crowds, and that can result in some other stress as well. So I think I came ready to compete. I had a very tough competitor and she put me under pressure. [But] I was somehow able to pull through.”

Harvard is undefeated over the last six years, having won all its matches since losing 4-5 to Trinity to close out its 2013-2014 campaign.

Evans, who has been on the team each of the last four sea sons, credits the squad’s incredible run of success to its unwavering work ethic and the leadership of its seniors.

“I think all four seniors do a really good job of exemplifying the attributes of putting in the work and seeing the result lat er,” said Evans. “We’ve all been on the team for four years now, we’ve won three national cham pionships and we’re going for a fourth—but it’s not without effort, and it’s not without fo cus, and it’s definitely not without cooperation. So I think that the good team unity that comes from the [senior class] really trickles down and affects the team at large.”

“Everyone’s just been rel ishing the opportunity to play,” Craig added.

After its match against Trin ity, Harvard closed out the week with a home tilt against No.

LU CKY NUM BER 13 Friday’s win against No. 13 Brown (pictured above) and Sunday’s triumph versus No. 4 Yale would mark the Crimson’s 12th and 13th victories against ranked opponents, helping Harvard to its perfect 13-0 record. owen a. berger—Crimson photographer

13 Brown and an away match against No. 4 Yale. Continuing the fine form it displayed against Trinity, Harvard took the match against the Bears, 8-1, and swept the Bulldogs, 9-0. Going into the season’s final week, Harvard’s w streak stands at 79 games.

With its win against Yale, Harvard secured at least a share of the Ivy League title for the sixth straight season.

It has a chance to complete its sixth straight undefeated sea son this weekend when it travels to Cornell on Saturday to close out the season. The game will start at 12:00 p.m.

eliot.min@thecrimson.com

Harvard Completes Weekend With Win Over Brown W m n’ BASKETBALL

By He n zhu Cr imson Staff Wr iter

A day after a resounding 66-57 victory over previously-unde feated Yale, the Crimson (13- 6, 4-2) capped off its extend ed five-game homestand with a dominant 68-53 win over Brown.

Four Crimson players — Lola Mullaney, Tess Sussman, Mag gie McCarthy, Rachel Levy — finished in double-digits, with Mullaney leading the side with 14 points. Sussman’s 11-point, 11-rebound night gave her the first double-double of her ca reer, as well as her fourth double-digit performance of the season.

“It’s really awesome,” Suss man said. “I haven’t really been a scorer in the past, but with Kenzie out now [Coach] Kathy [Delaney-Smith]’s kind of asked me to step up. I like to pass it a lot more so I feel a lot more con fident. It is helping me going to more tough games, so honest ly it’s just making me look more forward to the future.”

The Crimson saw every sin gle member of its squad earn playing time in this contest, in cluding double-digit minutes from first-years Gabby Donald son, Annie Stritzel, and Sara Park.

The trio combined for 14 points to fill out Harvard’s to tal bench scoring, with the team collectively shooting 38.6 per cent from the field and 42.9 percent from beyond the arc.

“I thought Gabby did a good job tonight,” Coach Del aney-Smith said. “I don’t know if you could tell, but I think Gab by has an enormous skill set.. Sara is an unbelievable shoot er. She’s small, but her defense is deceptively good. So again we’re trying to get those kids minutes because I think as we get to the second round, it’s go ing to be important.”

Sussman noted how the team as a collective unit is be ginning to find its rhythm offensively and made the necessary adjustments to maintain its double-digit lead for most of the contest.

“I’m just really proud of our team, we kept it together and fi nally started to execute on the offensive end which we’ve kind

of been struggling with,” Suss man said. “So it’s really nice to find connections, but as we’ve seen in the past we kept up our good defense.”

The Bears converted on no more than five field goals per quarter and were limited to just 21 points entering halftime.

Led by McKenna Dale’s 15 points, Brown largely ecked out points through intermittent tri ples and struggled to garner any consistent stretch of play out side of the final few minutes.

Although the Bears now own a 1-5 Ivy record, Delaney-Smith acknowledged the competitive ness of that side in a league with increased parity.

“They are dangerous,” Del aney-Smith said. “They hit a couple threes, it could have gone either way. We could have been back on our heels...so there’s just not a gimme here at all.”

The Crimson started slug gishly, converting on just one basket in the opening four min utes. But its three-point shooting began to get back into gear, with back-to-back triples from McCarthy and Mullaney.

Harvard then strung to gether another trio of consecutive triples, featuring swishes from junior co-captain Rachel Levy, Mullaney, and Sussman. Brown was limited to just 3-of12 shooting in the first frame, including a scoreless final 3:19 that saw Harvard carve out a 19- 10 margin.

The accuracy from deep con tinued as McCarthy immediately drained a corner triple in the second quarter’s first pos session.

The Bears would not find the bottom of the net until the 5:39 mark of the quarter — by that point, the Crimson had built up its lead to 16. McCarthy capped off the period with an acrobat ic finish at the rim, pushing her scoring total to double-digits (10) to lead the team at inter mission.

Compared to the prior day’s matchup against Yale, Harvard matched up against a team with much less height and size. As anticipated, the Crimson cap italized on the boards, out-rebounding the Bears 48 to 30 while tallying seven rejections in the contest.

With co-captain Mackenzie Barta sidelined, the Crimson continued to experiment with their options off the bench.

First-years Sara Park and Annie Stritzel earned a com bined 11 minutes in the first half, with Park — a clear perim eter weapon for Harvard — contributing her third triple of the season.

“Since so many of them ha ven’t had playing time before — our four freshmen — I can’t imagine what they’re feeling,” Sussman said. “But they do so amazingly, even if they play for five to 17 minutes. Everyone has stepped into the role that they need to be, and more.”

Coach Delaney-Smith once again turned deep within her bench for relief in the third quarter, this time inserting ju nior Maddie Stuhlreyer and first-year Gabby Donaldson into the contest. Like Park, Donald son introduced herself to the Lavietes crowd with a confident three. Sussman notched a trey of her own in the dying seconds of the frame, giving the Crim son a 53-35 lead.

Harvard closed out the final period continuing its balanced attack, with Stritzel earning four quick points thanks to two drives at the rim. Sussman de livered her third triple of the contest to cement her first dou ble-double of the season (11 pts, 11 rebounds), joining Levy who finished with a 10-point, 10-re bound night.

To close the game, Del aney-Smith rested most of her starters, allowing for an ex tended look at the bevy of options off the bench. Stritzel finished with seven points in the contest, all of which came in the final frame.

The Crimson now embark on a challenging four-game stretch in which it will travel to Cornell, Columbia, Princeton, and Penn in the span of two weeks. But with the first weekend sweep of the season in the books, the team is confident in its ability to continue its winning ways.

“I definitely think [our com fort level]’s through the roof,” Sussman said. “Our troops, we practice here every single day. But I think that our energy stems from each other so hope fully we can take that on the road.”