NEW HAVEN, Conn.—The No. 4 Harvard women’s squash team validated its ranking at the Howe Cup—women’s squash’s national championship tournament—at Yale this weekend, beating No. 5 Penn 6-3 in the quarterfinals before falling to No. 1 Yale by the same score in Saturday’s semifinals and No. 3 Princeton 5-4 in yesterday’s 3-4 playoff.

Freshman intercollegiate No. 19 Lydia Williams went 3-0 playing at No. 4 for the Crimson, despite each match lasting the full five games.

“She played out of her mind all three matches,” co-captain Louisa Hall said. “She was a star all weekend.”

Yale beat No. 2 Trinity 5-4 in the finals to take the national crown.

YALE 6, HARVARD 3

A week after falling 7-2 to the Bulldogs in the teams’ regular-season matchup, the Crimson lost again, but improved by an individual match as Williams and sophomore intercollegiate No. 25 Moira Weigel reprised their five-game victories with two more 3-2 wins and sophomore Alli son Fast won by default at No. 7 after her opponent, Lauren Doline, was forced to retire when she tripped over Fast and fell into the wall, injuring her knee.

Weigel, playing at No. 5, came from two games down and saved four match balls in the fourth game to win 4-9, 4-9, 9-5, 10-9, 9-7.

“I did a much better job hitting deep, hitting to the corners [later in the match],” Weigel said.

“We’ve come to expect anything out of Moira,” Hall said. “She’s such a fighter.”

Williams recovered from 1-0 and 2-1 deficits to win 7-9, 9-7, 4-9, 9-3, 9-6.

“Her drop shot was on,” junior Stephanie Hendricks said. “She was being very smart. She knew what to do with the ball. She was getting to everything and just putting it where she wanted and making her opponent run. She was playing great squash.”

At No. 1, Hall, the intercollegiate No. 4, fell to top-ranked Michelle Quibell in three games. Hall took a 5-3 lead in the first game, but Quibell roared back to take the next six points and the game.

Hall then led 8-4 in the second game, but twice caught the top of the tin as Quibell pulled to 8-7. Quibell hit a drop shot off Hall’s crosscourt return on the next point to tie the game and then won it with a pair of strokes.

Quibell cruised in third game, even laughing after missing the ball completely on one point and taking the game 9-1.

“I just kind of ran out of steam,” Hall said. “I was just exhausted.”