The Tripod

Media Credit: Alexa Parsons

Media Credit: Alex Fitzgerald

The Trinity College men's squash team kept its quest for a 12th-straight perfect season alive on Saturday, Jan. 29, with a 9-0 win over Harvard University. The Bantams, who are ranked No. 1 in the country, did not lose a single match to the Crimson. Harvard, ranked No. 5 nationally, has lost its second straight match and is likely to slip in the new rankings. The 11-time defending champion Bantams improve to 15-0 on the year. The team also extends its record-breaking win streak to 217 matches, the longest in college sports history.

Five of Trinity's top men won their matches in just three games, 3-0. No Bantam was taken into a fifth game, with No. 2 Parth Sharma '11, No. 4 Randy Lim '11, No. 6 Chris Binnie '11, and No. 9 Johan Detter '13 winning their matches 3-1. Detter's match was one of the tighter matches of the day. Harvard's Alexander Ma defeated Detter in a lengthy first game by a score of 17-15. Detter fought back, winning the next three games by scores of 11-9, 11-8, 11-9. Binnie also lost the first game of his match to Harvard's Jason Michas, before rebounding and winning the next three games, 11-7, 12-10, 11-7. Sharma easily won his first game, 11-3, before his opponent, Richard Hill, took the second game by a score of 11-8, evening the match. Sharma responded by taking the next two games rather easily at 11-3, 11-7.

Trinity No. 1, co-captain Baset Chaudry '10, received little resistance from his opponent, Colin West, winning 11-6, 11-4, 11-9. Chaudry continues to show consistency at the top spot for Trinity as he has done for the entirety of his four-year career. Losing just once in his First-year, Chaudry has been nothing short of dominant for the nation's best team.

The match at the No. 5 spot was another of the day's highlights, with Trinity's Antonio Salas '12 finding that 11 points was never enough to win a game. Although he won in three games, Salas never had the necessary two-point lead when reaching 11 points to win. His Harvard opponent, Eliot Buchanan, was unable to capitalize in the extended games, eventually succumbing to Salas 12-10, 13-11, 14-12.

The team's 9-0 win was its 12th shutout of the year in just 15 attempts. The team has lost just three matches all year, giving the individual players an overall record of 132-3. Saturday's win came just one week after dismantling the nation's No. 3 team, the University of Rochester, 8-1. Two days before the Rochester match, the Bantams defeated Yale University, the nation's No. 2 team, by the same score.

The Bantams will use this weekend's New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Championship Tournament to warm-up for the match against Princeton in a couple of weeks.

The Bantam women were not as fortunate as the men in last weekend's showdown with Harvard. The Bantam women, ranked No. 2 nationally, fell to the No. 1 Crimson, 7-2. The Bantams drop to 10-1 on the year while the Harvard team remains undefeated at 5-0.

Trinity's wins came from Nour Bahgat '12, and Tehani Guruge '10 at the Nos. 3 and 4 spots, respectively. Both women won in straight sets, 3-0. Only three of Trinity's players were unable to take a game off their Harvard counterparts. Two Bantams lost in four games, while two others lost in brutal five-game matches.

Bahgat won her match over June Tiong easily, with scores of 11-6, 11-4, 11-7. Guruge, ranked No. 22 nationally, was paired against the nation's No. 15 ranked player, Alsiha Mashruwala. However, Guruge had little trouble dismantling the higher-ranked player, winning by scores of 11-2, 11-9, 11-6.

One of the more devastating losses on the day was at the No. 2 spot. Nayelley Hernandez '10 was making her shots and appeared to be in control of the match early, winning the first two games, 11-6 and 11-7. Her opponent, Nirasha Guruge, fought back, taking the next two sets in closely-contested battles, 12-10 and 12-10. With the match tied, 2-2, Guruge played her best squash of the day, handily defeating Hernandez 11-6 in the final game. While a tough loss for Hernandez, the match was more of a testament to the grit of the No. 1-ranked Harvard team.

Robyn Williams '11 also battled in her match at the No. 9 spot. Playing Harvard's Cece Cortez, the match went back and forth, with neither player winning two games in a row. After losing the first game, 11-5, Williams rebounded with a tough, 11-9, win of her own. The third set went to Cortez at 11-7, before Williams routed Cortez 11-2 in the fourth game, sending the match into a decisive fifth game. The game, just like the match, fell into the hands of the Harvard team, with Cortez winning, 11-6.

Bantams Robyn Hodgson '13 and Emily Paton '10, playing at the No.'s 5 and 8 spots respectively, both won their first games before losing the next three. Hodgson won the first game of her match 11-8 before losing 11-6, 11-7, 11-6. Paton played one of the more even matches of the day, winning the first game, 11-9, then losing the next three, 11-8, 11-9, 11-9.

The loss was tough for the Bantams and several players were visibly upset at the end of the match. Although their dream of a perfect season has ended, they can take solace in the fact that they lost to the nation's top team.

The women will be playing in the NESCAC Championship Tournament this weekend before playing Princeton away in three weeks.

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