In squash's battle of the best, Harvard's four top women players shook hands with dissappointment this weekend.

Co-Captains Stephanie Clark and Daphne Onderdonk, sophomore Mary Greenhill and freshman Jordanna Fraiberg failed to reach the championship round at this weekend's Princeton Invitational at Jadwin Gym in Princeton, N.J.

With nine teams, including last year's top three--Harvard, Yale and Princeton--sending their top players, the tournament has earned a reputation as the season's first indicator of America's best intercollegiate players. Last year, Harvard's Jenny Holleran claimed the title. Not coincidentally, Holleran also won the intercollegiate National championships in March.

This year, however, with Holleran's drop-shot missing from the Harvard ranks, Princeton junior Hope MacKay emerged victorious. In a roller-coaster championship match, MacKay beat Yale junior Berkeley Belknap, from whom Holleran swiped the title last year.

MacKay pocketed the first game, 15-6. Belknap stomped MacKay, 15-3, 15-9, in the next two. MacKay came back to close out the match, 18-15, 15-9, in two fast-paced games.

Although Belknap lost the championship round, she and two sisters, twin Mary Belknap of Princeton, and Lee Belknap of Franklin & Marshall, proved to be talented thorns in Harvard's side. None of Harvard's four players could defeat the Belknap troika.

Third place went to the Tigers' Mary Belknap after Greenhill defaulted because of a pulled hamstring. Since early in the season, the persistent injury has plagued Harvard's second seed, who was ranked fifth in the nation last year.

"Mary [Greenhill] played very, very well all weekend," Assistant Coach Doug Lifford said. "She was fast. She placed the ball well."

Dead Weight

"Mary played great, definitely the best of all of us," Onderdonk said. "She would have done better if she could have put weight on her right leg."

After trouncing Trinity's number-one player--Sarah Hammond--Greenhill defeated Princeton's second seed, Mary Foulke, in three games. The wrath of Greenhill relented, however, when her hamstring began to bother her late Friday night.

The gutsy Greenhill was swept in three games by Berkeley Belknap Saturday afternoon but opted to forego the consolation round because of the injury.

Sisters, Sisters, Everywhere

Franklin & Marshall's number-one seed, Lee Belknap, continued the tripartite domination, defeating Clark in four games. Clark went on to crush Brown's top player, but eventually fell to Princeton's number-three player, Jen Roose.

The experienced Roose, in turn, sent Onderdonk, Harvard's number-four player, to the consolation rounds after three quick games. After convincingly beating Dartmouth's top player, Onderdonk fell to, you guessed it, Lee Belknap.

Freshman Jordanna Fraiberg performed less than perfectly, losing in the first round to--surprise, surprise--Mary Belknap.

"I just screwed up," Fraiberg said. "I made unforced error after unforced error, kept hitting tins and made ridiculous shots. I was just beating myself out there. It had nothing to do with my opponent."

Except for her name, of course.