Harvard men’s squash team secured a place in the first Ivy League Tournament Championship after defeating Princeton 8-1 in Princeton, New Jersey. The match marked the opening round of the inaugural tournament.
The Crimson rebounded from a recent regular-season loss to Princeton by starting strong and winning two out of three matches in the first set. Alexander Broadbridge earned Harvard’s initial point with a comeback victory at position six, overcoming a two-game deficit to win the next three games 11-4, 11-4, and 11-2.
David Costales extended Harvard’s lead by sweeping Avi Agarwal at position two, taking two close sets 11-9 and 11-8 before closing out with a 16-14 game.
Princeton managed to secure one point on court eight. However, Harvard responded by claiming all three matches in the second wave. Christian Capella defeated Aly Ibrahim in five games at position four. Capella won the first two games before Ibrahim tied it up, but Capella allowed only three points in the final game for Harvard’s third point.
Denis Gilevskiy then beat Hollis Robertson at position one after trading wins throughout their five-game contest, ultimately winning 11-7 in the deciding game.
Ishant Shah clinched the overall match for Harvard by defeating Yanai Ramot in straight games at position nine while three matches remained unfinished.
In later matches, Maddox Moxham swept Hassan Khalil at position five. Matches at positions three and seven were retired with Harvard leading 2-0 in each.
The final results included Denis Gilevskiy defeating Hollis Robertson (3-2), David Costales beating Avi Agarwal (3-0), Omar Azzam over Federico Sosa (2-0, retired), Christian Capella against Aly Ibrahim (3-2), Maddox Moxham versus Hassan Khalil (3-0), Alexander Broadbridge over Andrew Glaser (3-2), Jacob Lin against Yuvraj Wadhwani (2-0, retired), Justin Cheng of Princeton beating Segev Rome (3-2), and Ishant Shah over Yanai Ramot (3-0).
The order of finish was positions six, two, eight, four, one, nine, five, three, and seven.
Harvard will now face top-seeded Penn Quakers tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. ET in what will be the first-ever Ivy League Squash Tournament Championship.
