In its second trip to New Haven, Conn. in four days, the Harvard women’s squash team captured the Ivy League Championship with an 8-1 victory over Yale Wednesday night. In winning the title, the Crimson (9-2, 6-0 Ivy) displayed impressive resilience, recovering well from a heartbreaking, 5-4 loss suffered to Trinity in the Howe Cup Intercollegiate Team Championships at Yale on Sunday.

For the No. 3 Harvard men, it was a different story entirely, as the Crimson fell to the No. 4 Bulldogs 6-3, despite having beaten them 9-0 each of the last two years. The loss left Harvard (6-3, 4-2 Ivy) with the fourth seed and gave Yale (17-2, 5-1 Ivy) the third spot in the NISRA Team Championships, which start today at the Barnaby Courts in the Murr Center.

Women

Harvard dominated Yale en route to its ninth Ivy championship in 11 years. The Bulldogs also fell 9-0 to the Crimson on Saturday in the semifinals in placing third in their own quest for the Howe Cup last weekend.

“Everyone played with a lot of focus and energy despite coming off of an exhausting weekend,” co-captain and intercollegiate No. 19 Colby Hall wrote in an e-mail.

Despite the gamut of emotions the team experienced over the weekend, Harvard got back to its winning ways in its final team match of the season.

“We’d just been there and lost by basically a point,” co-captain Margaret Elias said. “This time we asserted our dominance over the league.”

The Crimson’s top four players swept their matches, while the lone Harvard loss came in the ninth spot, where sophomore Kristin Wadhwa fell in straight games.

Perhaps the most impressive win, though, was freshman Stephanie Hendricks’ five-game triumph at No. 7. Even though the Crimson had already locked up the victory, Hendricks fought through the pain caused by a stress fracture in her ankle to play. After losing the first two games, the rookie managed to claw her way back into the match and eventually take the fifth game, 10-9.

“It was a very satisfying win,” intercollegiate No. 5 Elias said. “It was representative of the hard work we put in as a team during the entire season.”

With this victory, the Crimson bid adieu to seniors Elias, Hall, and intercollegiate No. 12 Carlin Wing, although the top players will continue training together for the individual championships, which will be held at Princeton March 1-3.

“It was very emotional, but we still have the individuals left,” Elias said. “It was strange saying that final team cheer, but I’m not saying goodbye yet.”

Men

The Crimson men were coming off their own disappointing loss, but had a week and a half to recover after suffering a 5-4 defeat to Princeton that cost them the Ivy title.

With so much time between matches, Harvard couldn’t point to lack of preparation as a reason for the loss.