27-Feb-06, Women's Finals:
Hat-Trick for Yale

Original story from CSTV

Yale claimed their third consecutive College Squash Association title on Sun 26th Feb, coming from 2-4 down to defeat Trinity 5-4 in the final of the Howe Cup in Cambridge, Mass, with Yale skipper Amy Gross clinching the match for Yale with her four-game win over Ashley Clackson.

"This title means everything," said two-time defending CSA champion Michelle Quibell. "Wednesday was very rough on us, and we wanted to show everyone that we are the best team. We knew Trinity would be tough, but we figured playing our game would be enough."

It was. At No. 4, Gross got by Clackson 9-4, 5-9, 9-3, 9-2 to clinch the title for Yale. At 8-2 in the deciding game, the players actually lost the ball momentarily. With her opponent extremely tired, some felt that the momentum would change when play resumed, but Gross won the first point after the restart to kick off the celebration.

Even when they had those backs to the wall, Head Coach Dave Talbott remained confident in his players.

"When we were down 4-2, I felt like we could squeeze back in it with Amy and Michelle coming up," he said. "We played really well on Saturday against Harvard and went in today strong, but Catherine McLeod lost her first match of the year." 

Indeed, No. 3 McLeod lost an extremely close match to Lauren Polonich. Polonich was just able to squeak by, winning by a score of 8-10, 10-8, 10-8, 9-5.

True to Talbott's prediction, though, No. 1 Quibell was able to help rally the Bulldogs, defeating Vaidehi Reddy 9-5, 9-5, 4-9, 9-5. No. 2 Miranda Ranieri also won in four games, downing Larissa Stephenson, 9-2, 4-9, 9-4, 9-6.

At No. 6, Kate Rapisarda narrowly defeated Anna Detter, 10-8, 10-8, 10-9. Nicola Shiels rounded out the Bulldogs' wins at No. 8, beating Siobhan Knight, 9-3, 9-4, 9-4.

The win gives Yale its third straight national title and sixth overall. Though team competition is over for the season, the Bulldogs will be back in action next weekend in Amherst, Mass., when they compete in the CSA individual championships, where Quibell will attempt to win her third straight national individual title.

Original story from CSTV

Full story from Hartford Courant

Bantams live up to the hype

The Princeton side of the story

NINE WILL BE FINE
David Kelly reports

Princeton’s motto in the last 18 days was “unfinished business.” Earlier today, 175 miles from where I write this email, they had their chance to take of business. In the much anticipated rematch between the two titans of collegiate squash in 2006, one team proved its staying power that has been its trademark since 1998. It was the same four and a half hour match, the same two teams, but in this author’s opinion there wasn’t that same buzz that was apparent at the George A. Kellner Squash Center more than 2 weeks ago. Princeton had its fans – students and alumni alike, but I’m delighted to say that they were almost equally matched in vocal power by Trinity supporters – current students, supportive parents, and fellow alumni.

The three-court system was used with matches 3, 6, and 9 going on first. Eric Wadhwa, the lone American in the top nine played at number 9 facing Princeton fan-favorite Tom McKay. After splitting the first two games, Wadhwa won a closely-match third game to take the lead. Meanwhile, next to him on Court 2, Trinity freshman, Manek Mathur faced Princeton senior co-captain Nate Beck. Mathur took a 2-0 lead early on, winning the second game at 10-8. He came close to winning the third with several match balls starting at 8-4. Beck fought back and Mahtur dropped it at 10-8, but he came out fighting in the fourth and hung on to win 9-7. Wadwha took a cue from his freshman teammate and took the fourth easily at 9-2. Trinity 2, Princeton 0. This was exactly the opposite of the way the last match started and it boded well for the Bantams. On the main exhibition court, Trinity senior Jacques Swanepoel was in a rematch with Kim Lee Wong who beat him during the match in the regular season. Today would not be Swanepoel’s day either. The freshman from Malaysia played well and beat Jacques in 4. After the first three matches, Trinity had a 2-1 lead.

In the second flight of matches, sophomore Simba Muhwati brought his cheering section and his resiliency at number eight. After falling behind 2-1, Simba came out in the fourth and tore up his opponent, Michael Gilman, 9-0 to tie the match at 2 games all. Next to him on Court 2, Eduardo Perreira was in top form, easily handing his opponent, Vincent Yu in 3 games. Trinity 3, Princeton 1. Muhwati took the cue from the now very vocal Trinity supporters and took the fifth at 9-3. All we needed was one more game! Gustav Detter, who single-handedly brought you the “Gooooose” chant from the last Princeton match, today playing at two, faced fellow freshman sensation Mauricio Sanchez. Detter would not have the same luck he had in the last match playing, and winning, the match of the year (match of the streak?) against Princeton’s senior All-American Yasser El-Halaby. Gustav, visibly frustrated by the excess of let calls by Sanchez, played well, but not well enough and fell to Sanchez in 4. Trinity 4, Princeton 2.

After seeing the inspirational comeback by Simba and the precision with which Eduardo was able to put away his opponent, senior tri-captain Yvain Badan knew what was at stake. One win was all that would be necessary to seal the match. Badan’s match was moved to a court with a larger gallery in order to accommodate the bigger than expected crowd. Badan, playing in his last intercollegiate match for Trinity, came out firing. He easily took the first two games at 9-3, 9-6. Knowing he only needed one more game to seal the victory, Badan took control and beat his opponent Dent Wilkins 9-1 in the third. A group of players and fans stormed Badan as the Bantams secured the victory, now leading 5-2. Two other matches remained with the premier match up of Yasser El-Halaby and Shaun Johnstone on Court 1 and Yasser’s little brother Hesham facing Sahil Vora. Yasser, bothered by blisters on the soles of his feet (which, rumor has it, bothered him in the previous Trinity match), came out firing nonetheless. His status as 3-time defending national champion showed as he his shots were crisp and tight and ultimately too much for the Trinity junior from Zimbabwe. Yasser took the match in four well-played games. His brother, a highly-touted freshman recruit, showed his potential in securing a come from behind victory over Vora after falling behind two games to one. His victory was a bit anti-climatic, but the 5-4 final score showed how closely matched the two teams truly were this season. With a streak of 8 consecutive national championships and 144 straight wins both in tact for one more year, the Bantams look to Amherst in two weeks for the individual championships and on to next season where if eight is great, nine will sure be fine.

David Kelly