Despite winning at Amherst Wednesday night, the Harvard men's and women's squash teams are undoubtedly still reeling from last weekend's heartbreaking 5-4 losses to Trinity College.
One way to ease the pain in the interim would be to win the Ivy League Championships. To that end, the Crimson will visit Penn and Princeton this weekend for matches that will undoubtedly decide the hotly-contested
crowns.
"The teams are all very well-matched," said Harvard Coach Satinder Bajwa. "It will really come down to whoever prepares the best and performs to the best of their ability."
Last year, Penn-Princeton weekend proved disastrous for the Crimson, as the men and women lost the league championships to the Tigers and Quakers, respectively. This time, the Crimson enters knowing that they can compete with anyone after last week's close losses.
"The main thing we got out of [the losses] is that both teams believe they can beat the best out there," Bajwa said.
The Harvard women entered the Trinity match as the No. 1 in the country, only to come a few points short of validating that ranking against the No. 2 Bantams. Penn and Princeton, the third- and fourth-ranked squads, round out the top-tier of women's squash programs.
Penn is led by sophomore No. 1 Runa Reta. Reta devastated the Crimson in last year's pivotal contest, and has only gotten better since then. Last week, she handed Princeton's three time All-American Julia Beaver her first ever dual-match loss. In upsetting the nation's best player, Reta led the Quakers to a convincing 6-3 team victory.
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