They couldn’t quite bring their teams national championships, but Harvard’s top five men’s and women’s squash players will be seeking individual national titles at the ISA Championships beginning today at Princeton.

Although this weekend’s event is the only individual tournament on the college schedule, the Harvard men’s and women’s squash teams are looking at the championships as an opportunity to redeem themselves for their “disappointing” (by Harvard squash standards, anyway) third- and second-place finishes, respectively, at their team championships the last two weekends.

Last week was indeed a rough one for the men’s team, which lost, 6-3, at Yale on Wednesday before being eliminated from the NISRA Team Championships by Trinity by a score of 8-1 in Saturday’s semifinals. However, the men did avenge their loss to Yale, winning Sunday’s consolation match, 8-1, to take third place.

The women had this weekend off after beating Yale, 8-1, for the Ivy League championship on Wednesday. Even that success, though, could not completely make up for the heartbreaking 5-4 loss the team suffered to Trinity in the Howe Cup finals the previous Sunday.

Indeed, the Crimson players competing this weekend will play not just for themselves, but to end their teams’ seasons on a positive note.

“We were pretty disappointed with the way the team event went, but we’re looking at this as a chance at redeeming ourselves,” sophomore Louisa Hall said.

“I think the great thing about our team is that, even though it is an individual tournament and you’re clearly playing for yourself, we’re also playing as a team,” co-captain David Barry added.

Yet, an individual event brings with it some significant differences from traditional team competitions. Without the structure that a dual match inherently provides, there is room for both intersquad friendships and rivalries to develop.

“There’s a lot more interaction between the teams, but, individually, it’s often more intense,” co-captain Margaret Elias said. “Individual tournaments are always interesting because you don’t have the [team] intros. You don’t have the long preparation. It’s you on your own in a lot of ways.”

Also, since entrants are seeded from a single pool, rather than based on their teams’ ladders, players often have the opportunity to compete against people they didn’t play during the regular season. For example, Elias, who played in the No. 2 slot for the Crimson, could face several No. 1 players from other schools, while Hall, Harvard’s top woman, may get a shot at Trinity and intercollegiate No. 2 Lynn Leong.

With 32 players competing for each national title, the eventual finalists will be required to play five matches in three days, making fatigue an important factor.

“Ideally, you want to win 3-0 and stay rested,” junior Dylan Patterson said. “The tough thing is once you’ve played someone a lot, you know their game, so it goes longer.”

Still, for most of the players, college squash has been their first experience playing on a team, so they aren’t out of their element by any means.

“[Playing individually] is actually the way most of us grew up playing, so it’s a return to the familiar,” senior Carlin Wing said.

Men