Victor Crouin leads a Crimson team with incredible depth
By College Squash Correspondents
Harvard University won the Potter Cup on Sunday evening, earning the National Championship with 5-0 win against University of Pennsylvania.
This is the second straight year that Harvard has won the College Squash Association (CSA) National Men’s Team Championship and the 27th Potter Cup in program history. The result followed their all-conquering women’s team success the previous weekend.
The Crimson had dominated the competition all season long, relinquishing only four individual matches during the regular season. Penn had already clinched a historic year, earning a berth in the Potter Cup final for the first time in program history, but they were hungry for more in today’s final.
With the final being played to decision and numbers 2, 5, and 9 on court first, Harvard raced out to the start it was looking for. Harvard’s No. 5 Sean Hughes was the first on the board with a 3-0 victory, but teammates Ayush Menon and Marwan Tarek followed with 3-0 wins of their own in quick succession.
The second wave of matches began with the number 1, 4, and 8 players stepping on court, potentially with the chance to clinch the championship for their team. Despite losing the first game, Sam Scherl roared back at No. 4 to capture the fourth team point for the Crimson.
That left the deciding point up to No. 1 Victor Crouin, locked in an epic battle with Penn’s Andrew Douglas, or No. 8 Adam Corcoran, who faced the resilient Wil Hagen. Each Penn player won a game to extend the match, but in the end, Corcoran pulled away from Hagen in the fourth game to clinch the championship for the Crimson.
Soon thereafter, Crouin closed out Douglas in extra points in their fourth game to earn the sixth team point for Harvard. Having started their match after Scherl’s win, Harvard’s Timmy Brownell and Penn’s David Yacobucci continued their match to completion. In a battle of seniors in their last team match, Yacobucci jumped out to a 2-0 lead. Brownell pulled one back in the third, but with all eyes on the final match on court, the Penn Quaker closed it out for the lone team win on the day.
Harvard ends the season on a 33-match winning streak and clinched its first back-to-back undefeated seasons since 1995-1997.
US College Squash Association (CSA) National Men’s Team Championship, hosted by Harvard, MIT and Tufts.
Potter Cup Final, Harvard 6 Penn 1 (two ties not played).
Victor Crouin def. Andrew Douglas, 3-1 (11-6, 4-11, 11-5, 16-14)
Marwan Tarek def. Aly Abou El Einen, 3-0 (11-9, 11-6, 11-2)
Saadeldin Abouaish vs. James Flynn – DNP
Samuel Scherl def. Dillon Huang, 3-1 (5-11, 11-1, 11-3, 11-2)
Sean Hughes def. Yash Bhargava, 3-0 (11-6, 11-7, 11-4)
Timothy Brownell vs David Yacobucci, 8-11, 10-12, 11-2, 7-11
George Crowne vs. Saksham Choudhary – DNP
Adam Corcoran def. Wil Hagen, 3-1 (12-10, 11-5, 7-11, 11-3)
Ayush Menon def. Ryan Murray, 3-0 (11-6, 11-6, 11-5)
Division Winners:
Hoehn Cup: Columbia University (2-seed)
Summers Cup: Williams College (1)
Conroy Cup: Dickinson College (1)
Chaffee Cup: Fordham University (2)
Serues Cup: Boston University (6)
Hawthorn Cup: Lehigh University (4)
All tournament results and the live streams from the past three days of action on Harvard’s Courts 1 through 6 can be found on the Tournament Homepage.
From the Harvard website:
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – For the second straight season, the Harvard men’s squash team was crowned the CSA national champion. The Crimson dominated the No. 3 Penn Quakers in its final team contest of the season to win 6-1 and capture the Potter Cup.
Senior co-captain Sean Hughes was the first on the scoreboard, as he defeated his opponent 3-0 at the fifth position to put Harvard up 1-0. Ayush Menon followed suit with a 3-0 victory of his own. The first-year outscored his opponent, 33-17, to give the Crimson a 2-0 advantage. Marwan Tarek‘s win a the second spot gave the top-seeded Crimson a commanding 3-0 lead.
Samuel Scherl added a win at the fourth spot to set up Adam Corcoran, who clinched the match for Harvard with a 3-1 win at No. 8. Victor Crouin‘s 3-1 victory gave Harvard six points on the afternoon.
Harvard Highlights
- Harvard successfully defended its national title to give the program its 27th Potter Cup.
- The Crimson completed its first back-to-back undefeated-season stretch since 1995-97.
- Harvard ends the season on a 33-match win streak and improves its home win streak to 19 matches.
- Samuel Scherl finishes the season with a team-best 32-match winning streak.
- The nation’s top-ranked team posted a combined individual record of 136-5 throughout the 2019-20 season.
- Harvard improves its Potter Cup record to 22-8 under the leadership of Mike Way, Gregory Lee ’87 and Russell Ball ’88 Endowed Coach for Harvard University, James Herscot ’58 Coach of Excellence.
Next Up
The team will prepare for the individual national championships next weekend at Penn. Draws and information will be released later this week.
Pictures courtesy of Michael Bello and CSA