CSA Weekend Wrap-Up: Harvard Men’s And Women’s Teams Both Clinch 2023 Ivy League Crowns 
by Rob Dinerman

Dateline January 29, 2023 --- Harvard’s men’s and women’s teams both clinched their respective 2023 Ivy League championships Sunday afternoon with wins over the Columbia Lions in New York that capped off undefeated runs through the Ivy League schedule. But, while the Crimson men cruised to a comfortable 8-1 win, their women’s team was pressed to the brink, losing four of the first six completed matches and therefore going into the third three-match shift needing a sweep. Although Harvard’s Brecon Welch and Binney Huffman each won their first-shift matches in three games in the Nos. 5 and 8 positions (albeit with four of those six games being decided by two-point margins), Columbia responded with four consecutive mid-dual-meet wins to take what appeared to be a commanding lead. Its No. 1 player Farida Mohamed won 3-1 (taking both the first and third games in overtime) against Marina Stefanoni) and her teammates Chan Sin Yuk, Nourin Khalifa and Kiroshanna Manoharan all triumphed as well.

However, Harvard No. 4 Serena Daniel began the rally with a solid four-game win over Erica McGillicuddy, following which Daniel’s teammates Molly Stoltz and Habiba El Defrawy dominated their matches against Aleexa Khan and Sarah Cao, in each case not allowing their opponents to score more than six points in any game. The Harvard women thereby won their seventh consecutive Ivy League title, a school and league record, and 27th overall, also an Ivy League record.

Although the Harvard men were in control from the start against Columbia, their run to their 44th Ivy League pennant (well more than double the 18 that second-place Princeton has amassed) also had a crisis moment, in their case against 2022 Ivy League champion Penn, which led four matches to three in the late going of their dual meet one week ago. In the final two matches, Tate Harms saved a total of six match balls against him in the third game of his No. 5 match against Omar Hafez to keep Harvard’s hopes alive. As that match continued, Harvard No. 7 Neel Joshi surmounted a two games to one deficit by winning the fourth and fifth games of his match with Tushar Shahani to even the team score at four all. This left the team outcome to the Harms-Hafez match, which was in its fifth game by the time Joshi had completed his comeback. Hafez led 8-5, but Harms, rallying for the second time in the match, was able to conjure up a 6-1 closing surge to take that deciding game 11-9.

In other action this weekend involving Ivy League teams, both the Princeton and Penn men defeated Trinity College by decisive 7-2 scores. It was Princeton’s first win over Trinity since the 2012 Potter Cup final. The Princeton women’s team came remarkably close to handing the Trinity women their first defeat of the season. Tied at 4-all, the dual meet came down to the No. 9 match in which Trinity No. 9 Fabiola Cabello lost the fourth game of her match with Abigail Schuster but was able to dominate the fifth 11-2 to give the Bantams an extremely hard-earned victory.