CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – For the first time in Ivy League history, the top four women's squash teams in the league will gather to compete for a tournament championship. Harvard women's squash will compete in the inaugural event this weekend as it looks to make history by becoming the first team to capture an Ivy League Tournament Championship. To achieve the goal, the Crimson (8-2, 4-2 Ivy) will need to first go through the Penn Quakers (13-1, 5-1 Ivy), who the team will meet on the courts in the semifinal round on Saturday (Feb. 21) at 3:30 PM. The third seed in the tournament, Harvard will look to defeat the second-seeded Quakers to advance to the Championship on Sunday (Feb. 22).
 

What to Know

 

The First

For the first time in Ivy League history, the conference will sponsor a Men's and Women's Squash Tournament. The tournament will see the top four teams in the league standings (Penn, Harvard, Princeton and Yale) compete in a four-team knockout style tournament. The semifinal matchups will be [1] Princeton vs. [4] Cornell and [2] Penn vs. [3] Harvard. Both matches will be played simultaneously at 3:30 PM on Saturday with the winners advancing to the Championship match on Sunday (Feb. 22). The final is also set to begin at 3:30 PM.
 

Results and Records

• Harvard completed its regular season with a 9-0 sweep of No. 11 Tufts to improve to 8-2 on the season.
• Dixon Hill posted a perfect 10-0 record in the regular season, picking up the wins at the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth positions.
• Caroline Fouts and Lucie Stefanoni – the primary one and two on the Crimson ladder, respectively – own 9-1 records on the season.
• Saran Nghiem has played a majority of the season in the third position, recording a 6-1 record and an 8-1 record overall.
• Ocean Ma (fourth), Ona Blasco Puig (fifth) and Ahmed (seventh) make up the middle of the lineup for Harvard and have posted 6-4, 8-2 and 6-4 overall records, respectively.
• Senior captain Molly Stoltz owns a 7-2 record at ninth position and an 8-2 mark overall.

 

Career Numbers

• Saran Nghiem recently hit the 40 career wins milestone, leading the team in the category.
• Molly Stoltz owns 37 career victories

 

Recent Milestones

• Head Coach Mike Way recently passed the 200 career wins milestone as the leader of the Crimson women's program.
• Way owns 94 career Ivy League victories, just six shy of 100 in his illustrious career.

 

Series History with the Quakers

Harvard and Penn will meet on the squash courts for the 60^th time in series history on Saturday. Harvard owns a 51-8 record against the Quakers in a series that dates back to 1975. The Crimson recently had a 12-match winning streak against the Quakers snapped in the last meeting, when Penn captured a 6-3 victory over Harvard.
 

Up Next

After the conclusion of the tournament, Harvard will look forward to the CSA Team National Championships which are set to be held in early March.