The past weeks have been quite tough for the squash team: we lost to Harvard University just before the break 4-5, came back to school early to lose to Yale University 4-5 and eventually lost to Cornell University 4-5 last Friday. We are all obviously very frustrated because of the tense losses. As the team nationals are coming up in three weeks, we need to figure out quickly how to clinch these big matches in our favor. So we called up a team meeting on Sunday.

What separates us from those Ivy teams is that they have been on the top for a long time. They know how to win matches like those — it is as if they have something we are lacking as a team. In Sunday’s meeting we tried to find out what that something was. Have they been better players than us? No. Have they been training more than us? Probably not. Have they had less pressure to win? Wait, I think we are on to something.

Our team has improved vastly over the past few years. People refer to us as one of the most promising teams in college squash. This has generated quite a bit of pressure and expectations inside the team. We know we can beat these top teams and therefore have gone into these matches with a mindset that we NEED to win. What we have forgotten, though, is that we are still very new at the top and considered as the underdogs against all of the top teams. There should not be any pressure on us whatsoever. So maybe the Ivies are actually lacking something we have as a team — pressure.

The conclusion of Sunday’s meeting was to forget the losses, enjoy the coming weeks and train as hard as possible as a team. After the meeting that was followed by a very physical training session, I think the tide finally started to turn.