After suffering a decisive, 8-1 defeat to No. 1 Trinity on Saturday, the No. 2 Harvard men’s squash team knew it needed a strong performance against No. 13 Amherst last night to re-energize its quest for the national title.

Led by 9-0, 9-0, 9-1 victories from junior Dylan Patterson and sophomore Ziggy Whitman and a 9-0, 9-0, 9-0 thrashing administered by junior Thomas Storch, the Crimson (5-1, 2-0 Ivy) came away with an 8-1 victory over the Lord Jeffs (6-6). The triumph put Harvard back on the winning track heading into crucial Ivy League contests against Penn and Princeton this weekend.

Although the Crimson would prefer to ignore the Trinity match, it realizes that, with the right mindset, the loss can be made into a positive.

“You don’t really want to totally forget it, because you want to remember what you need to work on,” co-captain Peter Karlen said. “But you don’t want to concentrate on it.”

Sophomore James Bullock, the nation’s No. 9 player, seemed to have little trouble doing so as he opened the night by easily handling Carlo Valdesolo, 9-3, 9-3, 9-0.

After Valdesolo took the first point of the match, Bullock assumed control, winning the next six. By mixing his shots, the Crimson No. 2 never allowed Valdesolo to establish a rhythm.

Things only got worse for Valdesolo when, trailing 4-2 in the second game, he reinjured his right ankle, rolling it in spite of the brace he sported. Valdesolo did manage to win the next point, but Bullock then ran the table, capturing the final 14 points of the match as Valdesolo misfired on several shots and, as he grew more desperate and searched in vain for an advantage, became more aggressive in his shot-taking, leading to even more errors.

“Usually, I start off hitting bad shots and work my way in to hitting good ones,” Valdesolo said. “But if kids are hitting nasty shots off my bad ones, my forward progress ends there.”

Meanwhile, as Bullock took care of Valdesolo, erstwhile Harvard No. 1 Karlen dominated Amherst No. 4 John Holodnak.

This phase of Karlen’s recovery from a foot injury that relegated him to a walking cast earlier in the season seemed successful. At times, he displayed skills befitting his status as the No. 5 player in the nation in defeating Holodnak, 9-4, 9-0, 9-3.

Freshmen Michael Blumberg, who earned the Crimson’s lone win over Trinity, and Asher Hochberg, playing at the No. 6 and No. 8 slots, respectively, also won easily to give Harvard a 4-0 advantage as the odd-numbered players took the court. Blumberg defeated John Brody, 9-0, 9-1, 9-1, while Hochberg won almost as convincingly over Brian Lawrence, triumphing 9-2, 9-0, 9-2.

Patterson, in the No. 1 slot, led the Crimson onto Barnaby Courts for the night’s second set of matches to a chorus of cheers, many of which came from fans attending to help Patterson celebrate his twenty-first birthday.

Patterson himself, though, was all business.

“The goal today was to give [my opponent] no points, because if I come out lackadaisical on Saturday, I’ll get killed,” Patterson said.

Indeed, at the outset of the match, it appeared Patterson might well notch the shutout as he kept freshman Michael Strong entirely off balance, reducing him to chasing the ball frantically around the court, a stark contrast to Patterson’s own calm play.