After nearly a month break, and two straight losses against Yale and Trinity, seventh-ranked men’s squash (3-4, 1-2 Ivy) bounced back with a win against Ivy-rival and 11th-ranked Dartmouth (3-6, 0-5). The Red’s 6-3 victory over the Green was highlighted by key victories by seniors Charles Culhane and Nicholas Göth Errington, with both players winning in marathon five-game matches.
The No. 1 seed, junior Veer Chotrani, started things off with a clean three-game sweep, giving the Red an early lead. Chotrani’s win was followed up by the hard-fought wins of No. 4 Culhane and No. 6 Errington, who gave Cornell a 3-1 lead.
Thanks to No. 2 sophomore Spencer Yager and No. 9 freshman Rohan Iyer, the Red managed to clinch its second straight victory over the Big Green after seven straight losses. No. 3 freshman Arnaav Sareen swept his opponent in three games to give Cornell its final point in the 6-3 victory.
The next day, the Red made its way to Cambridge, Massachusetts to face second-ranked Harvard (9-1, 5-1), where it struggled to find its form in a 9-0 loss to the Crimson. The top of the lineup for the Red was quickly dismissed by the Crimson, with the top five players all being swept in three-game matches.
The bottom of the lineup had a stronger showing, with two players going the distance in five games. Specifically, No. 8 junior Humza Khan and Iyer, who forced their respective opponents to a hard-fought five games.
The women’s team replicated the men’s team’s results by also splitting the weekend. The eighth-ranked women (3-5, 1-3) began their weekend with a win over 11th-ranked Dartmouth (3-6, 0-5), also by a score of 6-3.
The win was highlighted by No. 3 sophomore Selena Georgieva’s comeback win and No.1 senior Sivasangari Subramaniam’s seventh straight win to continue her undefeated start to the season. Subramaniam began the scoring for the Red with a three-game sweep, giving Cornell the first point of the matchup.
The victory was backed up by wins by No. 6 junior Alexis Shatzman, No. 8 junior Ania LaDow and No. 2 sophomore Wen Li Lai. Georgieva rallied back after losing the first two games to sweep the next three, clinching the victory for the Red.
Cornell had a difficult task at hand the next day, facing undefeated Harvard (8-0, 6-0). The Red was only able to get two points off of the Crimson in a 7-2 loss. Although it was a loss for the Red, it was a big day for Subramaniam, who avenged her loss in the semi-finals of the 2020 College Squash Association’s Individual Championships by beating Harvard’s Hana Moataz in five games, handing Moataz the first dual-loss match of her entire collegiate career.
With the win, Subramaniam improved to 8-0 on the season, remaining undefeated at the No. 1 position. The Red’s second point of the matchup came from Georgieva, who won by default as her opponent was forced to retire with an injury.
It was just the second time in all 28 meetings between Cornell and Harvard that the Red managed to gain two points.
Both the men and women will wrap up Ivy League play next weekend with matches against Princeton at 2 p.m. on Friday at Belkin Squash Courts before traveling to Philadelphia, PA to face University of Pennsylvania on Saturday.