Co-captain Brandon McLaughlin defeated Trinity’s Karan Malik in five sets at the CSA Team Championships to help the Crimson bring home the Potter Cup. The crown is Harvard’s first since 1998.

Though the score wasn’t close on paper, it was the closest game of the day that sealed the Harvard men’s squash team’s 31st national championship. The victory also broke Trinity’s 14-season CSA title streak. In a tense five-set duel in the second flight that pitted Trinity’s Karan Malik against co-captain Brandon McLaughlin, the Crimson senior stormed back from a 2-1 set deficit to claim the Potter Cup for his teammates.

“Brandon had a really tight match,” said freshman Dylan Murray, who won his game in the No. 3 spot in straight sets. “[H]e had to battle back. He had to fight off two match balls in order to win his match, and [as] a senior captain on the team it was huge for him to…be able to clinch the national championship for the first time in his four years.”

McLaughlin began his day out of the No. 2 position with a tight 13-11 first-set win before running into some trouble against Malik. After dropping the next two sets, 11-8, 11-8, the co-captain kept his focus and took the fourth set, 11-2, to extend the game. McLaughlin and the junior Bantam matched each other shot-for-shot, with the Crimson senior eventually taking an 11-10 lead to force a match ball, this time in his favor.

“He was in command at times in the match, and then he would go back into a [bad] habit,” Harvard coach Mike Way said. “What was exciting as a coach was to see that happen but then to see [McLaughlin] catch himself…admonishing himself at certain points, collecting himself, and really getting back to the plan that was going to work.”

With spectators pressing against all sides of the court, the Crimson co-captain received the ball off the left wall and hit a soft backhanded shot into the front right corner, out of Malik’s reach. With the set, game, match, and championship ensured for Harvard, McLaughlin dropped his racket and shook his clenched fists in triumph, yelling with the crowd.

“He definitely deserved it,” Murray said. “He worked so hard during the season along with the rest of the team…. I think it’s a great culmination of his four years at Harvard. It’s a great way for him to finish things out.”

The contest was McLaughlin’s final team match for the Crimson (18-0, 7-0 Ivy), and finishing on top made the win even sweeter, according to Way.

“What a fitting finish, to be the fifth match and the clincher,” Way said. “I don’t think this is a moment he’s going to ever forget.”

McLaughlin also guaranteed that the No. 1 Crimson would avenge its 6-3 defeat at the hands of the Bantams in last year’s Potter Cup final.

“My number one feeling was that I was delighted for [McLaughlin],” Way said. “It’s a relief, though it sounds like a funny word…. [Up 4-0], I felt comfortable [that] we were going to win the team event, but in that moment, that was really…the clincher for Brandon McLaughlin.”

Playing from the No. 2 position for most of the season, McLaughlin posted a 10-2 record in his senior campaign. Over the three-day CSA Team Championships, McLaughlin recorded three wins out of the second slot.

“[McLaughlin] is an instinctive player, and what I mean by that is he doesn’t need a lot of instructions tactically,” Way said. “He’s learned to become a better player, [with] a more professional style of play, and he’s learned to do that over the past three seasons.”

In the quarterfinals against Ivy opponent Penn, McLaughlin and fellow captain Gary Power led the way with straight set victories. McLaughlin earned a 11-3, 11-3, 11-4 decision. The next afternoon, the Winthrop House resident handled his Franklin and Marshall opponent in straight sets, 11-8, 11-8, 11-3.

“We look up to Gary and Brandon, both of our captains, a ton,” Murray said. “They help us with not only our squash [play] but everything on and off court, whether it’s academics or anything else in life.”

The five-set win was also a major milestone for McLaughlin. It was his first win in three tries from the No. 2 position against a Trinity opponent in the chase for the Potter Cup.

—Staff writer Caleb Y. Lee can be reached at caleblee@college.harvard.edu.