“Obviously not the result that we wanted yesterday, but I'm extremely proud of the team and the way they've carried themselves all year,” Koh said. “The seniors have made an incredible impact on this team and we know the younger guys will use this weekend as motivation to come back stronger next year.”
HARVARD 5, COLUMBIA 4
In its semifinal match against Harvard, the Lions proved to be a tougher test than they had been earlier in the season. As is emphasized by the performance of their best player, junior Osama Khalifa, Columbia played with more grit on the national stage.
Dhingra, Brownell, Hughes and McLaughlin continued to extend their solid regular season play into the tournament. Each player triumphed decisively over his opponent. Replacing Murray in the lineup, sophomore Alexi Gosset claimed a crucial victory 8-11, 11-9, 2-11, 11-5, 11-4 at the ninth position, helping propel the Crimson into the finals.
Later on, Abouaish, Koh, and Ryan all lost in contested five-game matches at the first, seventh, and fourth positions, respectively. Abouaish and Ryan set out to early leads, only to see them slip away, while Koh nearly pulled off an upset after losing the first two games of his match. At position one, Khalifa refused to fold like he had in his last matchup with Abouaish, as he emphatically disarmed the rookie in the fifth game, 11-0.
HARVARD 8, YALE 1
After last Sunday’s closer than expected 5-4 bout, the seventh seeded Bulldogs came in with a realistic hope of upending Harvard. But with Ryan back in the line-up at the fifth position this time around, the Crimson cruised to an easy victory in the quarterfinal matchup.
Looking to build some momentum heading into its later weekend matches, Harvard was locked in as eight of the nine players on the ladder claimed tidy 3-0 victories against their respective opponents. Junior Bradley Smith’s 3-0 loss to Yale freshman Spencer Lovejoy secured the final result. The junior ended up winless on the weekend, failing in each of his matches at position two in three games.