CAMBRIDGE, MASS. – The University of Pennsylvania men's squash team (6-1, 0-1) suffered an Ivy League opening loss to the #1 Harvard Crimson on Sunday afternoon, as the Quakers fell 8-1.
 
In the last meeting between the two teams in the 2019 Potter Cup, Andrew Douglas delivered the one point for the Quakers at the top of the lineup. However, today's match was marked by tremendous battles across the bottom five.
 
Saksham Choudhary continued his magical start the season with a confident 3-1 victory over Julien Gosset. Choudhary finally dropped the first game of his collegiate career, after having won his first 20 in a row. Nevertheless, Choudhary improves to 7-0 and has continued the trend of impact freshman for Penn men's squash over the past few years (Aly Abou Eleinen and Andrew Douglas).
 
Some of the closest losses came from veterans of the team, including senior Wil Hagen, who nearly battled back from an 0-2 deficit, before falling 12-10 in the fourth. Yash Bhargava got off to a strong start, taking the first game, before surrendering the next two. A valiant comeback attempt in the fourth fell short, as Sean Hughes edged him 13-11 to secure another Crimson point.
 
 
Results
1. Victor Crouin (Harvard) d. Andrew Douglas (Penn) – 11-6, 11-4, 11-3
2. Marwan Tarek (Harvard) d. Aly Abou Eleinen (Penn) – 11-7, 11-6, 11-4
3. Samuel Scherl (Harvard) d. James Flynn (Penn) – 11-8, 11-5, 11-8
4. Saadeldin Abouaish (Harvard) d. Dillon Huang (Penn) – 11-7, 11-7, 11-3
5. Sean Hughes (Harvard) d. Yash Bhargava (Penn) – 8-11, 11-9, 11-7, 13-11
6. Timmy Brownell (Harvard) d. David Yacobucci (Penn) – 11-8, 11-7, 11-9
7. Saksham Choudhary (Penn) d. Julien Gosset (Harvard) – 11-9, 11-8, 8-11, 11-9
8. Ayush Menon (Harvard) d. Wil Hagen (Penn) – 11-7, 11-6, 10-12, 12-10
9. Liam Rotzoll (Harvard) d. Tushar Shahani (Penn) – 11-3, 11-3, 12-10
 
The Quaker men will look to put this loss behind them as they travel to Hanover, New Hampshire to face #11 Dartmouth for their next match. The event will coincide with the women's match at 11 a.m. on Sunday morning.