Although it is not one of the best known sports at Harvard, Crimson squash is the most successful. The varsity men's team has won 10 of the last 12 national nineman team titles, including the last four.
Entering this past Saturday's matches against Western Ontario and Cornell, the men's team was poised to continue its success, coming off an impressive win against Brown on November 18. The team did not disappoint, either, beating Western Ontario, 7-2, and crushing Cornell, 9-0.
Against Western Ontario, the Crimson got off to tough start. The Canucks took a 2-1 lead in matches, and three more losses seemed imminent; Harvard junior co-captains Joe Kaplan and Tal Ben-Shachar and classmate Ted Bruenner were all struggling in their matches.
But the mark of a true championship team, as John Wooden has often said, is its ability to respond to adverse conditions. So too with this squash team. Bruenner, down 2-0 in games, swept the next three to take the win in the best of five contest. Kaplan, down 1-0 in games, like wise came back for the win.
And after Ben-Shachar, the Crimson's top-ranked player, was knotted one to one in games, he posted two straight two-point game victories to claim a hard-earned match.
These three wins were coupled with wins in the two remaining contests, and the Crimson won by a deceptive, five-game margin, 7-2.
"Ted (Bruenner) and Tal (Ben-Shachar) really turned the tide," said sophomore Andy Kaplan, who won his match 3-0. "We really felt like we were behind, but we came back."
Ben-Shachar, who clinched last year's national title in a thrilling five-set match against Yale, stressed that Harvard Coach Bill Doyle prepared his team mentally and physically to triumph in close contests.
"At this level, people are almost of the same skill," he said. "After an hour of playing, people are exhausted, and its really more will power than anything else. Our hard training makes us mentally and physically tough."
After playing the seasoned Western Ontario club, Harvard had an easier time with the less-heralded Cornell team, cruising 9-0.
Despite losing player-of the-year Adrian Ezra '94 to graduation, Harvard seems primed to repeat as national champions.
Three freshmen are ranked highly on the Harvard squad (In each team competition, the players are ranked one to nine). Daniel Ezra was slated at number two over the weekend, Rishaad Bilimoria was three, and Jeffrey Blumberg was at the seven spot.
With this array of new talent added to the returning players, it seems that complacency might be Harvard's toughest opponent. Yet the team shows no signs of slowing down.
"This game doesn't always come down to skill," Kaplan said. "We work hard every day in practice. The game is almost second nature to us."
The team does not have any more matches until the National Five-Man Team Championship in Atlanta January 6-8, and its next lvy League match is at Penn on Febuary 4.
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