Ferreira, Trinity’s No. 2 player, was the top-ranked player in the nation for much of last season.

Bajwa has taken a sort of supply-side approach to the problem—by getting to potential recruits early and helping them meet Harvard’s rigorous admissions standards.

“Many aren’t necessarily aware of what is needed to get into Harvard, so I’ve started working on seeing kids in their junior year, educating them about the procedure, the SATs and SAT IIs,” Bajwa said. “It’s a learning experience, and once we do that we’ll have a very good foreign presence again.”

Young Eli

Elsewhere in squash this weekend, the No. 4 Princeton men barely edged No. 3 Yale as Eric Pearson needed five games to pull past the Bulldogs’ Christopher Olsen to clinch it at No. 5. Meanwhile, the Yale women breezed past the Tigers, 7-2. Yale, which had not factored into the Ivy championship mix in past years, has aggressively recruited young talent over the past two years and has gotten remarkable early success from its new players. Yale’s women’s top nine includes six freshmen, and the Yale men’s victories this weekend came at the bottom of the order, mostly from younger players.

“This could be a three-way tie for the Ivy title,” Bajwa said. “It’s not a forgone conclusion we’ll win it outright.”

While Trinity poses more of a threat in the immediate future, such a three-way scenario could very well materialize in the next two years.