In the words of Dartmouth men's squash Coach James McCracken, "Harvard's something to shoot for."

Indeed, the Crimson is currently playing on a level with few counter-parts. The men's team will challenge Yale for the national championship on Wednesday, while the winner of the women's match against the Elis will determine the nation's second-ranked team.

Yesterday afternoon Dartmouth showed neither the focus nor the firepower to gun down Harvard's squash juggernaut, as the Crimson cruised to easy 9-0, 8-1 victories in the men's and women's competitions, respectively.

With the undefeated men's team posting an 11-0 overall record (5-0 Ivy), and the women just short of that with one regular-season loss to Princeton, the Crimson's only real challenge of the day was to maintain its competitive spirit over Big Green squads that have never defeated Harvard.

Junior Brooke Bailey had a little trouble doing just that at first.

"Everyone plays well when they're an underdog," Bailey said. "It's really hard not to slip down a few notches."

She dropped her first game before handily overcoming her scrappy opponent, 3-1.

In the men's match, junior Jeremy Fraiberg, the Crimson's top-seeded player, acknowledged that he too lacked that competitive fire early into his match against the Big Green's Jose Suarez.

"I was sort of anxious. I've been gearing up for this weekend and Yale, and I'm coming off a big high in February," Fraiberg said after the match. "It was a good test, trying to get into a groove."

But despite its problems focusing on the game, the Crimson had little difficulty dismantling its opposition.

At first seed, Fraiberg came back from his first loss of the season last weekend to battle the feisty and aggressive Suarez. Though Suarez raced around the court, chasing down and returning several of Fraiberg's shots, the Crimson sure-15-9, 15-9.

After an early challenge from his Dartmouth rival, second seed Marty Clark disposed of a visibly frustrated Alexis Miron to sweep the match, 15-10, 15-9, 15-3. Miron let out several grunts and shouts during the match, trying to mount an offensive, but he was clearly outgunned.

Crimson junior Co-Captain Jonny Kaye defeated Dartmouth's Jim Zug 3-0, and Farokh Pandole scraped back from a first-game scare to topple Dartmouth senior Doug Henry, 12-15, 15-6, 15-8, 15-10.

The rest of the Crimson sliced through Dartmouth with similar ease, sweeping all but one game. Freshman Jon Karlen, at number six, started off slow and dropped his first game, but mounted a potent 15-7, 15-8, 15-3 comeback to continue the Harvard rout.

The Dartmouth women's team also provided little competition for the undermatched Crimson, which moved several players up in the lineup and put several junior varsity players on the roster.