In its first action since No. 1 Trinity proved its continued dominance last Thursday, the No. 2 Harvard men’s squash proved that while it may be a step behind the Bantams, it is still better than everyone else in collegiate squash.

Playing with an injured and flu-stricken lineup, the Crimson (8-1, 5-0 Ivy) pieced together two straight victories over the weekend, beating Penn 8-1 on Saturday and squeaking by Princeton 5-4 on Sunday.

Harvard won despite missing two of its top players for both of the contests. Intercollegiate No. 4 sophomore Siddharth Suchde didn’t even make the trip with the team as he recovered from a sore hamstring, and intercollegiate No. 9 sophomore Ilan Oren also sat out Saturday’s match.

After re-injuring his knee against Penn, intercollegiate No. 2 junior Will Broadbent was forced to sit out against the Tigers, as Oren returned to take his spot in the lineup.

“We got a little lucky this weekend,” captain Asher Hochberg said. “There were definitely some matches out there we could have lost.”

HARVARD 5, PRINCETON 4

A day after coasting past Penn, the Crimson was ready for another solid victory against Princeton (6-3, 3-3). Unfortunately for Harvard, this one wouldn’t be so easy.

Playing without Broadbent and Suchde, the Crimson struggled to find its five wins. The deciding match came at the No. 7 position where freshman Chessin Gertler won what was by far the most crucial match of his young career.

With the other eight contests decided and the score knotted at 4-4, Gertler found himself down 2-1 and in danger of dropping the crucial ninth match. But the freshman battled back and took the final two frames to keep the Crimson undefeated in the Ivy League and on track to its second-straight Ivy title.

“I had no clue mine was the deciding match,” Gertler said. “I actually thought we had won by then.”

Added Hochberg: “I’ve never been so nervous my entire life than watching a freshman playing a deciding match.”

Harvard also got a clutch performance by sophomore Todd Ostrow, who saw action at the No. 8 position because of Broadbent and Suchde’s absences. Ostrow fell behind 2-0 in his match but was able to battle back and take the match in five games 3-2.

The other three victories for the Crimson came from Oren at No. 2, sophomore Jason De Lierre at No. 3 and Hochberg at No. 4.

HARVARD 8, PENN 1

In its first action since a disheartening loss to Trinity, Harvard played shorthanded in Saturday’s contest against Penn (8-4, 3-3). Absent from the Crimson’s ladder were Suchde and Oren, who had competed at the No. 1 and 3 spots respectively against the Bantams.

But even without two of its strongest players, Harvard coasted past the Quakers 8-1. The Crimson reverted to its pre-Trinity form and beat up a clearly inferior opponent.

“It was nice to get back on track,” Hochberg said. “We got to put Trinity behind us and start with a clean slate.”

Intercollegiate No. 4 senior Michael Blumberg, who had the only Crimson victory against Trinity at the No. 4 position, played his first match of the year at the No. 1 spot. Blumberg found himself in the most competitive match of the afternoon playing against Penn’s premier player, Gilly Lane. But Blumberg fought through the fatigue of playing two pressure matches in three days and managed to remain undefeated on the year, pulling out 9-0 victory in the fifth game and winning 3-2.

Elsewhere, the Crimson regulars preformed flawlessly. Broadbent bounced back from his unexpected loss against Trinity to beat the Quakers’ Rich Repetto in straight games. But Broadbent tweaked a knee injury that had bothered him earlier in the fall and would be forced to sit out against Princeton yesterday.

The sole loss for Harvard came at the No. 9 spot, where senior Ryan Abraham dropped a tough five-game match to Will Simonton. It was Abraham’s first competitive action of the year, as he filled in for the resting Suchde and Oren.

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