NEW YORK, NY – No. 2 Harvard Women's Squash closed out Ivy League play today in a 5-4 come from behind win over No. 8 Columbia to secure their seventh straight Ivy League title.
The Crimson began the day with grabbing the first two points off wins from
Binney Huffman and
Brecon Welch. As the match carried on the Crimson fell behind and the match stood at 4-2 with Columbia leading and three matches still in play.
Serena Daniel,
Molly Stoltz, and
Habiba Eldafrawy all buckled down and grabbed wins to lift the Crimson to victory and help the team remain undefeated in conference play. In just her fourth match of the year, Stoltz swept her opponent to tie up the match before Eldafrawy grabbed the fifth and deciding win for the Crimson.
Harvard Highlights
- With the Crimson down 4-2, Daniel, Stoltz, and Eldafrawy rallied to lift Harvard to victory while only dropping a combined one game in the process.
- For the second straight match, Stoltz has dropped the least number of points of any Crimson player, outscoring her opponent 11-5, 11-6, 11-4. Eldafrawy was not far behind, outscoring her opponent 11-4, 11-6, 11-6.
- Four of the Crimson five wins were sweeps coming from Eldafrawy, Stoltz, Welch, and Huffman.
- With the win, the Crimson claim sole ownership of the Ivy League title for the 27th time in program history, having now sat atop the conference for seven straight seasons.
- The Crimson have now extended their undefeated streak in the all-time series with Columbia to 13.
Results
Harvard – 5, Columbia – 4
- Farida Mohamed def. Marina Stefanoni, 3-1 (12-10, 3-11, 13-11, 11-6)
- Chan Sin Yuk def. Saran Gregory-Nghiem, 3-0 (12-10, 11-3, 11-8)
- Habiba Eldafrawy def. Sarah Cao, 3-0 (11-4, 11-6, 11-6)
- Serena Daniel def. Erica McGillicuddy, 3-1 (7-11, 11-5, 11-7, 11-7)
- Brecon Welch def. Elizabeth Lentz, 3-0 (11-6, 11-8, 11-9)
- Nourin Khalifa def. Amira Singh, 3-0 (11-2, 14-12, 11-6)
- Kiroshanna Manoharan def. Charlotte Orcutt, 3-1 (11-13, 12-10, 11-6, 11-2)
- Binney Huffman def. Amal Izhar, 3-0 (11-8, 13-11, 12-10)
- Molly Stoltz def. Aleexa Khan, 3-0 (11-5, 11-6, 11-4)
Order of finish: 5, 8, 1, 6, 7, 2, 4, 9, 3
Next Up
The Crimson will return home to play Tufts University on Tuesday February 7 at 5:00 p.m. at the Murr Squash Center.
