Men take down #1 Rochester and #7 St. Lawrence

Our men’s team had its toughest test of the season yet but the team came out with two big wins this past weekend.

#1 ranked Rochester had just beaten Trinity the week before our match. Rochester reached the final of the nationals last year, losing the national title just 5-4 against Yale. They hadn’t lost a home match in three years.

All of our players showed real maturity during their matches. After two hard rounds of play, matches were tied at 3-3. The third round was not easy: At one point, freshman Timmy Brownell was at 2-2 (with a dead leg), senior co-captain Bryan Koh was down 0-1 and freshman Saad Abouaish was at 1-1 at #1 against Rochester’s Ryosei Kobayashi, a finalist of the individual nationals from last year.

Despite the difficult situation, the men stayed focused and stuck to their game plans. All three players won their matches in the end and the Crimson walked away with a 6-3 win.

The match against St. Lawrence was very similar. While St. Lawrence had lost 4-5 against Penn in the fall, the team is much stronger now after acquiring a couple of great recruits in January. Harvard lost at #1 and #2 but was able to win at #3 and #4 after great performances by junior Madhav Dhingra and freshman Timmy Brownell. In addition, the Crimson won all the matches from #6 to #9 but none of them were straightforward. Dylan Murray had the toughest one at #8 but he ended up winning 11-9 in the fifth.

While it was a great weekend for the team, the next hard matches are already around the corner: There’s a lot of Ivy action this coming weekend with both Columbia and Cornell traveling to Cambridge. Following them, we will be hosting Trinity next Wednesday at the Murr. We certainly are in the heart of the season.

Upcoming Home Matches:

Saturday, Feb 4 @ Noon
Harvard vs. Columbia

Sunday, Feb 5 @ Noon
Harvard vs. Cornell

Wednesday, Feb 8 @ 4pm
Harvard vs. Trinity

All of the home matches will be streamed at http://www.ivyleaguedigitalnetwork.com/harvard.

Full Results:

#4 Harvard vs. #1 Rochester 6-3
http://modules.ussquash.com/ssm/pages/leagues/list_scorecard.asp?id=95378

#4 Harvard vs. #7 St. Lawrence 6-3
http://modules.ussquash.com/ssm/pages/leagues/list_scorecard.asp?id=97245

Read more about the weekend:

The Harvard Crimson: Men’s Squash Drops No. 1 Rochester and No. 7 St. Lawrence
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2017/1/30/mens-squash-2017/

GoCrimson.com: No. 4 Men’s Squash Powers Past No. 1 Rochester
http://www.gocrimson.com/sports/msquash/2016-17/releases/20170128oxpmg7

GoCrimson.com: No. 4 Men’s Squash Rolls at No. 7 St. Lawrence, 6-3
http://www.gocrimson.com/sports/msquash/2016-17/releases/20170129po1pq0