It's the squash equivalent of a free-for-all. Put every women's team in the country in one facility and let them duke it out for top honors.

It's called the Howe Cup. It was held at Yale this weekend, and the team that finished on top was Harvard--for the first time in three years.

The Crimson mopped up its opponents with ease: it blanked Amherst, Franklin and Marshall, Princeton and Yale, 9-0, and defeated Trinity, 8-1, over the three-day tournament.

"We basically crushed everyone," Captain Carrie Cunningham said. "There's not that much to say."

Also over the weekend, the men's squash team went on the road and defeated Navy, 8-1, on Saturday and Franklin and Marshall, 9-0, on Sunday.

Both the men and the women will play Yale Wednesday at Hemenway Gym for the de facto national championship.

The Howe Cup is not considered a national championship event because "it would cheapen the regular dual meet season," according to Cunningham.

But that doesn't make it any less sweet.

"It feels awesome," Cunningham said. "Everyone despises Harvard because we're so good, and they loved the fact that we've lost the Howe Cup."

While the Crimson lost just one match on the round-robin tournament--sophomore Rosie Stovell lost to her Trinity opponent--it was not the smooth ride the final records show.

"A lot of people had to fight very hard for their games," junior Vanya Desai said.

Desai, Harvard's top player, had one of the biggest matchups of the tournament. Desai faced Franklin and Marshall's Margo Greene, who had finished second in the USSRA Tournament the weekend before, and rebounded from a 2-1 deficit to win the match three games to two.

Desai also dropped her opening games to Amherst and Trinity.

"I wasn't walking in there," Desai said. "I was nervous and going all out. I had to go all out to win the points."

Harvard played without defending individual national champion junior Jordanna Fraiberg, who was sidelined with the flu.

On the men's side, Harvard lost just one match all weekend: senior John Horwitz fell to his adversary from Navy, three games to two.

"Navy's a tough place to play and Josh was feeling a little under the weather," Doyle said. "The loss isn't going to affect him at all."

Co-Captain and top player Marty Clark ran into trouble at Franklin and Marshall, but won the fifth game of his match 15-3 to escape with a 3-2 win.

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Individual Championships: Following this Wednesday's monster matchup with Yale is the national individual championships, to be held at Navy for the men and at Princeton for the women.

Clark and junior Adrian Ezra--who won the event in 1990--are expected to go and should be the tournament's top two seeds, according to Doyle.

Other players could be selected but may opt not to go in order to catch up on missed school work, Doyle added.

Jeremy Fraiberg '91 won the tournament last year.

The women are expected to send six or seven players to the 64-player tournament, according to Cunningham, including defending champion Fraiberg.

That number is easily the highest of any school, Cunningham said.

"Most teams send two or three--or one--player to that tournament," Cunningham said.