The No. 3 Harvard men’s squash team was on the winning and losing ends of tough 7-2 road matches this weekend in defeating No. 8 Penn Saturday and falling to defending Ivy League champion Princeton on Sunday. With the victory over the Crimson (6-2, 4-1 Ivy), No. 2 Princeton (7-0, 6-0 Ivy) clinched the Ivy League title for the third time in four years.

Princeton 7, Harvard 2

The Tigers boast the most imposing top five in the country, with freshman sensation and intercollegiate No. 1 Yasser El-Halaby supported by seniors Will Evans, David Yik, Dan Rutherford and Eric Pearson, who comprise arguably the greatest class in Princeton history. The quintet won the US Squash Racquets Association five-man team championship earlier this year, while Evans was the 2002 intercollegiate runner-up and Yik the 2001 intercollegiate champion.

“We knew our lower seeds would have to carry us today, and that one or two of the top five players would need to pull upsets,” said freshman and Harvard No. 1 Will Broadbent.

Early on, Broadbent’s analysis appeared accurate, as sophomores Asher Hochberg and Gaurav Yadav won at the No. 6 and 8 positions, respectively, while co-captain Dylan Patterson dropped a four-game heartbreaker at No. 4 and junior intercollegiate No. 9 James Bullock fell to Evans.

Yadav won an epic five-game match against Princeton sophomore Nathan Beck, coming back to take the last three games, 10-8, 10-9 and 9-1, after trailing 2-0.

Conversely, Hochberg, the intercollegiate No. 32, came out strong against junior Aaron Zimmerman, overcoming a temporary, mid-match lull to win in four games, 9-3, 5-9, 9-6, 9-1.

“I had played Zimmerman a number of times before so I knew his game pretty well,” Hochberg said. “I have been injured a little bit this year though, so it was a big confidence booster beating a guy of his caliber.”

Bullock was frustrated all day by intercollegiate No. 5 Evans, losing 9-3, 9-6, 9-3 in the battle of All-Americans.

Intercollegiate No. 25 Patterson turned in another valiant effort against No. 17 Rutherford with the opportunity to put the Crimson ahead 3-1 and turn the tide of the match.

Patterson came out slowly, losing the first game 9-2 before establishing himself in the middle games, narrowly falling 10-8 in the second game and winning 9-7 in the third. However, Patterson couldn’t maintain his momentum and dropped the fourth game 9-3.

“I was pretty disappointed in my effort today,” Patterson said. “Though he is ranked higher than me, I have played him a lot before and I thought I had a good chance to win coming into the match. Unfortunately, I just came out flat in the first and last games and he hit a number of winners.”

With the score tied 2-2, Harvard took the court looking to hold at the No. 7 and 9 positions and find a victory or two against Princeton’s vaunted top five.

The early results were encouraging, as intercollegiate No. 7 Broadbent went up 8-5 on El-Halaby. But the nation’s top player staged a ferocious comeback, winning five straight points to take the first game 10-8.

“I came out on pure adrenaline,” Broadbent said. “I was feeling great out there and playing probably the best squash game of my life.