Harvard's varsity squash team won 27 of 31 individual games and easily defeated Dartmouth, 9-0, yesterday on the Hemenway courts. The victory, the Crimson's seventh straight this season, set the stage for Harvard's all-important trip to Princeton and Penn next weekend.

Dartmouth, without a top number one player or any considerable depth, is strongest at the middle five positions. But the Crimson was never seriously challenged at any position and no match went past four games.

Sophomore Peter Briggs swept his match with Dartmouth captain Justin Stanley at number one, and Harvard number two, Dave Fish, defeated the Indians' most successful player, Jim Smith, in three games.

Dartmouth's Dave Miskell put up the closest fight of the day, but even in that case the Crimson's Jaime Gonzalez won easily, 15-11, 15-13, 12-15, 15-10.

"I was surprised by the drop shots he hit," Ed Atwood said of his opponent, but the Harvard captain still won in three games, 15-12, 16-15, 15-9.

His Father's Hopes

The Indians' only sophomore, Doug Donahue, raised the hopes of his father and a highly partisan Dartmouth crowd when he won the third game, but Alan Quasha won 11 of the last 13 points to take the match at five.

Andy Weigand faced the most serious challenge of the match from Jan Opsahl at number seven, but Opsahl visibly choked on the crucial points and fell, 15-12, 16-13, 19-17.

Reggie Foster, Neil Vosters, and also Lowell Pratt at number ten, easily swept their matches, indicating the depth on the Crimson ladder.

Coach Jack Barnaby had two objectives for the squash team at the beginning of the season. Having lost five seniors from last year's national championship team, Barnaby's first goal was to develop slowly the inexperienced talent on the young Crimson squad. The second objective was to peak for a Feb. 20 match with Penn, clearly a far better team on paper than any other squad in the nation.

The Crimson appears to have achieved the first goal. In seven matches Harvard has lost only one point. The only close games this season have come at the top two positions.

But Penn has also passed every hurdle to the national championship except the Harvard match. The Quakers easily defeated Williams two weeks ago, 8-1, and last Saturday Penn, playing without its regular number two and four, edged Princeton, 5-4, on the Tigers' courts.

Ivy Standings

W L

Penn 3 0

Harvard 2 0

Pricneton 2 1

Yale 2 1

Dartmouth 0 3

Cornell 0 4