Patterson blanked Strong in each of the first two games and remained on the court to run and stretch after each, attempting to alleviate stiffness throughout his lower body. As Patterson took the first three points of the third game, the shutout became an ever more realistic possibility. Unfortunately, Strong captured the fourth point of the match, but Patterson came back to take a 4-1 lead. After Strong failed to capitalize on several chances to score, Patterson made a gorgeous shot to get back on track. At 7-1, Strong excited the crowd with a behind-the-back shot, but even that wasn’t enough, and Patterson closed him out, yielding only the single point.

On one side of Court 3, where Patterson was picking Strong apart, Harvard No. 3 Ziggy Whitman, the No. 18 player in the country, crushed freshman Gifford Sommerkamp, 9-0, 9-0, 9-1. On the other side, though, it was a completely different story, as Amherst managed its lone win of the evening when Crimson co-captain David Barry fell to Amherst No. 5 David Bauer, 9-6, 9-0, 10-8.

However, Storch was able to blank Asad Haque at No. 7 and senior Tomo Hamakawa overcame a 5-2 deficit in the third game to beat sophomore Andrew Merle in the No. 9 slot, 9-0, 9-0, 9-5, for the final 8-1 tally.

Now, Harvard’s focus turns to its matches against No. 10 Penn on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. and No. 4 Princeton on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. at the Murr Center. The latter contest will likely determine the Ivy League champion.

Penn has suffered this season from a lack of depth, but is led by freshman and national No. 10 Richard Repetto at the top of its lineup. Patterson, Reppeto’s likely opponent, is quite familiar with the Penn phenom, having lost to him in the national finals during Patterson’s senior year in high school.

“He’s probably the most talented American in the last ten years,” Patterson said. “He’s a shotmaker, so I’ll try to neutralize his shots and make him make mistakes.”

For their part, the Tigers have recently suffered a shake-up at the top of their lineup, with national No. 6 Will Evans leapfrogging defending national champion David Yik to take over the No. 1 position. Patterson is familiar with Evans, too, having beaten him as a freshman before losing their last three matches.

With Princeton featuring two more top-twenty players, No. 14 Dan Rutherford and No. 19 Peter Kelly, repeating as Ivy champs will be no easy task for the Crimson. Indeed, last year, the team only barely captured the title and avenged its 5-4 upset loss to Princeton the previous year when then-co-captain Shondip Ghosh eked out a 17-15, fifth-game victory.

Entering the weekend, the Harvard players are confident in their talent and conditioning. What remains to be seen, though, is whether the Trinity loss will weigh on their minds or whether they can harness it and use it as motivation for the rest of the year.