CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The No. 2 Harvard men's squash team posted a key 6-3 win this afternoon against the No. 4 Yale Bulldogs to improve to 4-0 in Ivy League play. The Crimson (7-1, 4-0 Ivy) won three consecutive matches in the final wave to get past the Bulldogs (5-2, 3-1 Ivy) and clinch a spot in the inaugural Ivy League tournament field.  
 

How it Happened

The No. 2 Harvard men's squash team began its battle against Yale with a win at eights thanks to Segev Rome, who posted a 3-0 win that included a 14-12 victory in the final game. Yale fought back by tying the match with a win at fours to make the score 1-1. Omar Azzam secured the critical point to close out the first wave, earning a 3-2 win at threes. The Junior took the first game of the match before falling in the second and third games. Azzam rallied to win the fourth and fifth games of the five-set thriller to earn the victory and make the score 2-1 in favor of Harvard.
 
Yale briefly tied the match at two with a 3-1 win at fives, but Jacob Lin put Harvard back in the lead with a 3-1 win of his own at sevens. Lin won three straight games after falling in the first to earn the key victory. The Bulldogs took the final point of the second wave after earning a 3-1 win at the top of the ladder in the match between the ones. With three matches to go the score was tied 3-3.
 
Ishant Shah led off the final wave with a huge 3-0 win at nines, putting the Crimson in a position to clinch. Denis Gilevskiy and Alexander Broadbridge both win their matches to help the Crimson clinch the win. At sixes, Broadbridge posted a remarkable comeback win after falling behind 2-0. The first-year won three tightly contest matches in the run to secure a 3-2 win and clinch the match for Harvard. Gilevksiy won his match 3-1 at twos after falling in a first game tiebreaker. The senior won the second and third games of his match by a combined score of 22-3 to rally to a win and send Harvard off with a 6-3 victory over the Bulldogs.
 

RESULTS

No. 2 Harvard – 6
No. 4 Yale – 3
1 - Tad Carney (YALE) def. David Costales, 3-1 (7-11, 11-2, 11-4, 11=2)
2 - Denis Gilevskiy def. Lachlan Sutton (YALE), 3-1 (10-12, 11-2, 11-1, 11-9)
3 - Omar Azzam def. Arav Bhagwati (YALE), 3-2 (11-6, 11-13, 9-11, 11-9, 11-4)
4 - Rohan Gondi (YALE) def. Christian Capella, 3-1 (11-7, 9-11, 11-8, 11-6)
5 - Rishi Srivastava (YALE) def. Maddox Moxham, 3-1 (10-12, 11-8, 11-9, 11-5)
6 - Alexander Broadbridge def. Rick Chen (YALE), 3-2 (12-14, 6-11, 11-7, 11-6, 11-7)
7 - Jacob Lin def. Oliver Velasco (YALE), 3-1 (8-11, 11-6, 11-7, 11-8)
8 - Segev Rome def. Bennett Eun (YALE), 3-0 (11-7, 11-6, 14-12)
9 - Ishant Shah def. Jack O'Flynn (YALE), 3-0 (11-3, 11-9, 11-4)
Order of Finish: 8, 4, 3, 5, 7, 1, 9, 6, 2 
 

Up Next

Harvard will have the week off before returning to Ivy League action on Feb. 14-15. The Crimson will make the trip to the Philadelphia area to battle Penn and Princeton on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.