NEW YORK — The Columbia squash teams were defeated by Harvard on Sunday at the SL Green StreetSquash Center. Columbia's eighth-ranked women nearly pulled off the upset against No. 2 Harvard but were edged, 5-4. The ninth-ranked men fell to the top-ranked Crimson, 8-1.
 
The home finale served as Senior Day. Prior to the start, the Lions acknowledged and honored the careers of Ellie McVeigh, Elizabeth Lentz, Hugh Camiener and Chaitanya Shah. All four joined the Lions in 2019 and were four-year members of the program.
 
The women's match saw Harvard go up, 2-0, before the Lions rallied to take four straight points. Farida Mohamed closed out the opening wave with a four-game victory against Marina Stefanoni in the No. 1 match, 12-10, 3-11, 13-11, 11-6.
 
Columbia swept the second wave with three-game victories by Simmi Chan (2) and Nourin Khalifa (6), as well as a four-game victory by Kiro Manoharan (7). Manoharan and Chan finished within minutes of each other, putting the Lions up, 4-2 in the team score.
 
Harvard needed to win all three matches in the final wave to close out the Ivy League season undefeated, and they did just that. The Crimson dropped just one game through those matches to sneak away victorious.

"The effort, energy and overall play were all there," Kenneth W. Torrey Director of Squash Chris Sachvie said. "Harvard has been very dominant but we knew we had a chance. We've been close with just about every single team we've played this season. I think we see ourselves as a team that nobody is going to want to play at Nationals. Nobody has escaped from us very easily. We're an underdog with a lot of confidence is what our mentality will be.

On the men's side, Harvard had locked up the team result by the end of the second wave. The Crimson took five of the opening six, but Columbia's Jacob Bulbulia was victorious in the No. 6 slot in three games, 11-9, 11-8, 11-5, to get the Lions on the board.

Gonzalo de la Mora played an exciting five-game match at No. 9. He won games two and three by scores of 11-3 and 11-2 to take a 2-1 lead, but Conner Stoltz responded by winning games four and five, 11-3, 11-9.

"Next weekend is also huge for the men in an eight-versus-nine matchup which will likely determine what flight we get into at Nationals," Sachvie added. "It's an interesting time of year, where we are always getting ready to compete the next weekend. At the same time, I'm hoping we can make little changes as we go to get better heading into Nationals."

The Lions will spend the rest of the regular season on the road as they prepare for Nationals. Their next match closes out the Ivy League season on Saturday, February 4, at Cornell.

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