“[Gary] did well to stay composed,” Schonborn said. “It’s tough to stay motivated through a tough battle after something like that happens.”
The Bulldogs were missing second-team All-American Hywel Robinson from their lineup on Sunday, giving the surging Harvard team a boost on which it could not capitalize.
“We thought we would have the edge with matchups, but they played a really tough match,” Ahmed said. “I think they wanted it a little bit more.”
Although obviously not pleased with the loss to its Ivy rival, the Crimson emphasized positive takeaways from the match at Yale, especially in terms of preparation for upcoming postseason competition.
“What we learned from today is that now we’re the underdogs,” Schonborn said. “We put ourselves there, but it’s a great place to be going into [CSA Team Championships] next weekend. We think we should be [ranked] a little bit higher than we are, and we have to prove it to ourselves and everybody else.”
“I think the big lesson is that it doesn’t matter what the matchups look like on paper,” Ahmed continued. “You have to go out and win them.”
—Staff writer Catherine E. Coppinger can be reached at ccoppinger13@college.harvard.edu.