Harvard's squash team moved up a notch yesterday as it demolished Amherst College 8-1.

Missing the services of Captain Craig Stapleton, Coach Jack Barnaby moved the bottom five men on the ladder up one position, and played John Whitbeck at nine. Barnaby still came up with five wins for the last six. But Amherst made those five squirm.

Matt Hall at number four found his opponent a good slugging player and dropped a game, before subduing Amherst's Perry Pickert, 15-7, 10-15, 15-6 15-4.

Gordie Black as number five and John Harwood at six both swept their matches 3-0. Black played to a close third game, 17-14, but the long-haired junior was never in trouble.

Seventh man for Harvard, Yoshi Akabane met a tough and persistent Amherst racketman in junior Allen Ho. Akabane played a fast, hard-pressing match, but lost in four games, 15-12, 15-10, 15-18, 15-8.

Harvard's eighth and ninth men squeesed out 3-2 wins. Michel Scheinmann outplayed the number eight man for Amherst, but missed shots and had to win three straight points to pull out his match 17-16 in the last game.

Whitbeck Comes Back

John Whitbeck came back from a 1-2 deficit to win, 10-15, 15-6, 12-15, 18-14.

Anil Nayar, Rick Sterne, and Jose Gonzales, the Crimson's first three racketmen, won their matches so handily that they were able to watch their teammates contortions from the Hemenway bleachers. Nayar won in three games of 15-8, while Sterne picked up his match, 15-1, 15-5, 15-7.

Of the top three only Gonzales gave up a game, dropping his third before winning 3-1.

In the freshman match against Amherst yesterday, Harvard was even more systematic, sweeping twelve positions to a 12-0 victory; all but two of the wins were 3-0.