The result left Mumanachit and Mendez fighting for the title as the only players left on court.

Mumanachit dropped her first game to freshman Shihui Mao, 11-5, before taking the next two. Mao responded with an 11-6 win in the fourth, leading to a critical fifth game.

With Mendez firmly in control of her match against van Arkel, all eyes—and in some cases ears—were focused on Mumanachit and Mao.

“I was probably more nervous listening to the crowd during Sarah’s match than I was about my own match,” Mendez said.

Cortes echoed the sentiment, as she believes Mumanachit played the make-or-break match.

“[Mumanachit] showed tremendous mental strength and fortitude, but also adaptability,” the co-captain said. “She played long rallies but also attacked more, which is a new dynamic that she has added to her game that made the difference…. That was the match of the day.”

And Mumanachit showed that offensive strength as she powered to an 11-3 win to take the matchup.

With the score tied at 4-4, Mendez was halfway through her strong performance against van Arkel when the freshman dropped  her opponent, 3-0.

With its Ivy title, Harvard sits in pole position going into the CSA Team Championships, which will be held Feb. 24 at the Murr Center. But Cortes said she knows that now is not the time for her team to become complacent.

“We’re glad that we won today, but we have a lot of work to do over the next few weeks before Nationals,” the senior said. “We’re going to take this win and set it aside…and take nothing for granted. Some of the women we played today are going to be training hard, and they may come back and play better squash. So our level is going to have to come up if we want to maintain our seeded position.”

—Staff writer Peter G. Cornick can be reached at pcornick@college.harvard.edu.