But with the pressure off, Suchde held off a little and fell to Illingworth.

“I knew in the back of my mind it was 8-0,” said Suchde of his mind frame going into his match. “So I was still trying hard but I wanted to save it for [Trinity].”

Little did he know, that by the time he hit the court against the Bantams, the national championship would already be out of reach.

HARVARD 9, CORNELL 0

Harvard began its weekend just as everyone expected with a 9-0 dominating performance over the Big Red.

The Crimson mirrored the shutout that it gave Cornell almost three months ago when it beat the Big Red 9-0 in Ithaca on Dec. 4. As has been the case all season, Harvard proved that other than Trinity, no one else in the country is even close.

Coming into the weekend, the Crimson hoped that it would be able to save its energy for the Sunday showdown with the Bantams, and in that regard, Friday’s easy victory didn’t hurt.

Although the team came into the match wanting to avoid even the slightest slip up, everyone knew that Cornell would need a minor miracle to even stay in the match. While the Crimson has four of the top 10 players in the country, the Big Red’s top player, Matt Serediak, is No. 13. With the convincing edge in talent, Harvard’s victory was never in question.

Much as the team was able to use its early season matches to work on weaker points, the Crimson used Friday’s tune up as a chance to gain confidence and warm up for the tougher matches over the weekend.

Harvard’s top four, Suchde, Oren, Blumberg, and Broadbent, looked in fine form—all four winning comfortably in straight games.

While the Crimson was pleased with the easy win, it knew that even in the best case scenario, the entire weekend wouldn’t go so smoothly.

—Staff writer David H. Stearns can be reached at stearns@fas.harvard.edu.