CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – In the second top-three matchup of the weekend, No. 1 Harvard Men's Squash welcomed No. 2 Penn to the Murr Squash Center for a battle of the best in college squash.
How It Happened
The Crimson started strong, pulling ahead 3-1 in the first four matches with wins from
Liam Rotzoll,
David Costales, and
Marwan Tarek. The Quakers did not go down without a fight as they began to claw their way back with three wins in a row to pull ahead with just one win to clinch.
As the score stood at 4-3 in favor of Penn, the Crimson were behind in two battles at the No. 4 and No. 7 positions.
Neel Joshi won his first game but fell behind, dropping the next two. Energized by the packed crowd in Murr, Joshi powered through the final two games to grab the fourth win and bring the match to a tie.
Tate Harms showed his resilience as he fell behind, dropping the first two games but refused to surrender. After a long 17-15 third game, Harms took the momentum to carry him to wins in the final two games, ultimately clinching the win for the Crimson.
Harvard Highlights
- With the win the Crimson remain atop the standings in both college squash as a whole and the Ivy League.
- Marwan Tarek and David Costales both swept their opponents today. Tarek led all Crimson players with the least number of points allowed, outscoring his opponent 33-10.
- Liam Rotzoll registered his first win of the season, downing Dana Santry (Penn), 3-1.
- Harvard battled back from being down in the final two games outstanding to secure the 5-4 win.
- Harvard has now won the last two matchups between the two squads and increased its lead in the all-time series to 79-4.
Results
Harvard – 5, Penn – 4
- Marwan Tarek def. Nathan Tze Bing Kueh (Penn), 3-0 (11-2, 11-6, 11-2)
- Nicholas Spizzirri (Penn) def. George Crowne, 3-1 (11-9, 11-9, 11-13, 13-11)
- Roger Alber Baddour (Penn) def. Ido Burstein, 3-0 (11-9, 12-10, 11-9)
- Tate Harms def. Omar Hafez (Penn), 3-2 (7-11, 8-11, 17-15, 11-5, 11-9)
- Dillon Huang (Penn) def. Denis Gilevskiy, 3-2 (11-8, 11-13, 4-11, 11-7, 11-9)
- David Costales def. Saksham Choudhary (Penn), 3-0 (11-9, 11-8, 11-4)
- Neel Joshi def. Tushar Shahani (Penn), 3-2 (13-11, 9-11, 12-14, 11-9, 11-4)
- Liam Rotzoll def. Dana Santry (Penn), 3-1 (11-4, 12-10, 8-11, 11-9)
- Abdelrahman Dweek (Penn) def. Ishant Shah, 3-2 (11-13, 11-4, 4-11, 11-9, 12-10)
Order of finish: 3, 8, 6, 1, 5, 9, 2, 7, 4
Next Up
The Crimson will look to secure the Ivy League title next weekend with another back-to-back weekend. First, Harvard will travel to No. 8 Cornell on January 28 and then to No. 9 Columbia the next day, January 29.
