CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The No. 3 Crimson men's squash team opens a four-match stretch of Ivy League play with No. 7 Princeton on Saturday, Feb. 3 at noon. Harvard meets No. 6 Penn 24 hours later with both matches available for streaming on the Ivy League Network live from the Murr Center.

The Crimson
Harvard (7-1) won all 18 contests against No. 9 Rochester and No. 12 Drexel. Three sophomores continued to occupy the top three slots for the Crimson. Saadeldin Abouaish represented the Crimson at spot No. 1, while Timothy Brownell and Sean Hughes took up slots two and three, respectively. Freshmen Samuel Scherl returned to the No. 5 spot, being bookended by senior captains David Ryan and Madhav Dhingra in the middle of the lineup. Senior Bradley Smith,  junior Alexi Gosset and freshmen Julien Gosset and Adam Corcoran completed the lineup for Harvard.

Scouting Princeton
Princeton (8-1, 3-0 Ivy League) has its highest national ranking (6th) since 2013. The Tigers escaped Penn, 5-4, on Wednesday night. Four Princeton players headed into the match undefeated. Two emerged unscathed. Princeton is led at by Youssef Ibrahim at No. 1. The freshman has swept 7-of-9 matches in his rookie campaign. Co-captain Abhimanyu Shah extended his unbeaten streak with a five-game win at No. 7. Junior Clark Doyle and freshman Alex Engstrom lost for the first time this year. All-America sophomore Adhitya Raghavan is 8-1 at slot two. Princeton rides a six-match winning streak into Saturday's contest.

Scouting Penn
Penn (8-3, 2-1 Ivy League) is off to its best start since 1985-86. The Quakers were blanked, 0-9, at top-ranked Trinity last Saturday, but were without four regulars. Penn then lost to No. 6 Princeton, 4-5, last night. Freshman Andrew Douglas is the top-rated player for the Quakers, having gone unbeaten until running into Trinity's Kush Kumar. Hayes Murphy is the No. 2, followed by Marwan Mahmoud, David Yacobucci, Karim Tarek, Derek Hsue, Yash Bhargava, James Watson, and Max Reed.

About Last Time
Harvard swept 14 matches last weekend against Rochester and Drexel to pick up a pair of wins.

National Rankings
The Crimson stayed at No. 3 for the second straight poll. Trinity maintained its No. 1 standing as the only undefeated program this season. Check out the entire Dunlop Men's College Association Team Rankings. 

It's Gonna Be Hughes
Sophomore Sean Hughes carries a 22-match win-streak into this weekend's competition. The Newton Square, Pa., native went 14-0 at No. 4, 5, 6, and 8 as a freshman, before moving up to spots two and three this season.

Rhodes Scholar
Mandela Patrick was named a 2018 Commonwealth Caribbean Rhodes Scholar in November of 2017. One of nine candidates from the region, he was selected for the honor and will spend two years pursuing master degrees in computer science and statistics. Patrick's time at Oxford will begin in October of 2018.

Returning Swagger
The Crimson returns a lot of potential from a team that reached the Potter Cup finals and finished runner-up at the CSA National Team Championship. The reigning champions of the Ancient Eight feature four All-Ivy League selections in Abouaish, Brownwell, Dhingra, and Smith. 

Welcome Back Potter?
Harvard seeks to claim its first Potter Cup since 2014 and return the prize to Cambridge. Trinity College, the current keepers of the cup, will host the CSA National Team Championship from Friday, Feb. 23 through Sunday, Feb. 25. The Crimson were edged by Trinity, 5-4, in the finals of the 2016-17 national tournament.

Ivy League Network
The Ivy League Network returns for a fifth season as the home for all live streaming and on-demand video content for each of the conference's eight institutions. Broadcast in full HD and featuring a live score bug and play-by-play and color commentary, the Ivy League Network provides fans with unprecedented access to the Ancient Eight.

Multiple subscription options are available to fans, including school-specific and league-wide passes. To learn more about the Ivy League Network or to sign-up today, click here, or download the Ivy League Network app!

What's Next?
Harvard closes out Ivy League play versus No. 9 Yale and No. 16 Brown. The Crimson take on the Bulldogs on Friday, Feb. 9 at 4 p.m. and the Bears on Sunday, Feb. 11 at noon. Harvard then concludes the regular season at Trinity on Tuesday, Feb. 13 at 4 p.m.