Harvard Club Squash Wins First-Ever National Title

Sometimes the sweetest victories are the ones you have to earn twice.

Harvard Club Squash traveled to Philadelphia last month with unfinished business. The year before, an administrative error stripped them of their national championship title, handing it to rival Boston University instead. Led by junior captain Daniel Hochberg, the team wasn't about to let history repeat itself.

The road to redemption hit a bump in the first match against Washington University Saint Louis. Freshman Andrew Bradkin went down with a hamstring injury, leaving Harvard a player short. Then their seventh seed missed his flight. Down two players before the tournament really started, the team could have folded.

They didn't. Harvard beat the Bears 6-3, proving depth matters more than a perfect roster.

The second match brought a chance at revenge against Boston College, a team that had beaten them earlier in the season. Top seeds Hochberg and freshman Avery Lin dominated their opponents, losing just one game between them. Juniors Cotton Snoddy and sophomore Mina Subramanian secured the clinching points, even with one match defaulted due to injury.

The final against Purdue came down to the wire. The teams traded wins in the opening matches, staying dead even. Senior Tyler Weisberg broke through in just 25 minutes at the fifth seed position, shifting momentum to Harvard. The remaining Crimson players capitalized, closing out a 5-4 victory.

Subramanian, the only woman on Harvard's national team roster, called it a match that "easily could have gone either way."

Why This Inspires

Club sports operate in the shadows of varsity programs, without the same funding, facilities, or support. Players juggle full course loads with tournaments that devour entire weekends. Four round robins means eight to ten matches, and keeping teammates committed through that grind tests any captain.

Hochberg credits the tight-knit culture the seniors built. "Everyone just was able to buy in," he said. Subramanian added that the team creates "this community that you can be a part of when you want to, but also not the expectation that you can't miss anything."

That balance between competitive fire and academic reality helped Harvard weather injuries, missed flights, and the pressure of redemption. The team is already planning ahead, hosting a practice for prospective freshmen on April 26 to keep the momentum going.

For the first time in Harvard history, the club squash team brought home a national championship, proving that second chances are sometimes the best chapters of the story.