To be number one, you have to be the best. As Harvard found out on Saturday, the No. 1 Trinity men’s squash team has the top ranking for just that reason.

The Bantams swept the event at their own Kellner Center, overpowering No. 5 Harvard 9-0 with five match-ups ending 3-0 in Trinity’s favor.

“It’s hard to be happy with a 9-0 loss, but at the same time we were quite pleased with the result in terms of how we were competing,” junior Eliot Buchanan said. “It was just those last couple of points in each game that were making the difference, where Trinity was showing a little more discipline, a little more experience.”

Going into play on Saturday, the Crimson knew odds were in the home team’s favor. Trinity, the No. 1 ranked team for the past 10 years, holds the longest winning streak in the history of intercollegiate varsity sports with 217 matches.

“Each of those players, they are in league with professional athletes really,” Buchanan said. “Squash is their priority and they are very physically prepared but more so mentally prepared.”

“They go into every match knowing they will win,” he added. “It’s one thing to think you can win, but they have the experience to go in with special positive attitudes in their mind and that certainly reflects itself in the game.”

Trinity’s shutout started with freshman Zeke Scherl’s loss in the No. 3 position to Trinity co-captain Supreet Singh. Singh took the first two games 11-4, before Scherl came back in the third, going point-for-point until Singh took control, 12-10.

Buchanan, playing at No. 5, faced similar back-and-forth play against the Bantam’s Antonio Diaz Glez as each of their games went into overtime. While Diaz Glez finished with the victory in each game, Buchanan’s play continuously improved. The junior lengthened each overtime before falling 10-12, 11-13, 12-14.

“In one respect I was disappointed because it’s one or two points,” said Buchanan, who just finished a semester abroad away from squash. “I could have come up with a victory there, and one victory from one player leads to another, it’s all about momentum...but from an individual perspective I was very pleased with my performance.”

Unlike Scherl and Buchanan, the opponent of the Crimson’s No. 1 senior Colin West did not need overtime to take control.

Baset Chaudhry, Trinity’s top player, dismissed West in three games 11-6, 11-4, 11-9.

For the intercollegiate squash world, this was the individual match-up to watch with Baset voted No. 1 and West No. 2 in the College Squash Association’s preseason rankings.

“I think the last time Colin played him, he beat him, but we all know that Baset is much more polished then he was three months ago,” Harvard coach Satinder Bajwa said prior to the contest.

As West fell to Baset, two Harvard rookies, No. 9 Alexander Ma and No. 6 Jason Michas, picked up two of the Crimson’s four games won, before losing the next three to their respective opponents. juniors No. 2 Richard Hill and No. 4 J. Reed Endresen also won a game apiece.

“At the end of the day the results are what matters, and each of us sort of faltered a little bit when we had the lead,” Buchanon said. “When we had the opportunity to close up the game we just couldn’t quite push that extra step.”

Despite losing 9-0, Harvard plans to take the positives of playing a top-caliber opponent into next weekend’s double-header against No. 8 University of Pennsylvania and No. 4 Princeton.

“Playing Trinity yesterday was obviously a huge privilege, but really it’s a non-conference match-up,” Buchanan said. “With that said, Penn, Princeton, and Yale are all huge matches. They are crucial because one loss will put us outside of our goal for the Ivy League title.”

—Staff writer Alex Sopko can be reached at sopko@fas.harvard.edu.