Princeton University
Yale
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Dramatic El Halaby Comeback Highlights Men's Squash Thriller Over Yale
February 01, 2003 | Men's Squash
Feb. 1, 2003
NEW HAVEN, Conn. - The Princeton-Yale men's squash rivalry has been as good as it gets over the past few years, or so both schools thought. The drama level was turned up another notch today, thanks to a brilliant showing between a pair of highly touted freshmen. With the match tied at 4-4, Yasser El Halaby (Fr., Cairo, Egypt) rallied from 2-0 down and a match ball in game three to top Julian Illingworth 3-2 and put the Tigers in the driver's seat for its second straight Ivy League championship.
"That was the most exciting squash I've ever seen at the college level," Princeton head coach Bob Callahan said. "It was a terrific comeback and we feel lucky to have had it work out"
Early nerves and the strong play of Illingworth put El Halaby in an immediate hole. In the feature match, played in front of approximately 500 fans, the Princeton freshman found himself down 8-4 in the third game. On match ball against him, El Halaby claimed a long point to gain serve back. He wouldn't give it up again, winning the final six points to take the third game 10-8. The momentum carried through in game four, as El Halaby ran through Illingworth for a 9-0 win. The fifth game was tied at 3-3, but El Halaby won six of the final eight points to claim the match and put Princeton over the top. "When he was nervous at the start of the match, he tried to attack the front court too soon, and Julian was there to counter-attack effectively." Callahan said. "Finally, after being fortunate enough to win the third game, Yasser set the point up better by attacking the back of the court first, then attacking short."
El Halaby's win gave Princeton the match because of the continued stellar play of the Class of 2003. The seniors swept the 2-5 matches, dropping only one game. Will Evans (Sr., Auckland, New Zealand), who didn't allow a single point in a win over Penn Wednesday, rallied from 8-1 down in the third game to win 10-8 and claim the match in three games. David Yik (North Vancouver, B.C.) won 3-0 at No. 3, as did No. 4 Dan Rutherford (Calgary, Alb.). No. 5 Eric Pearson (Philadelphia, Pa.), who defeated Christopher Olsen 3-2 last year to clinch the Yale match, knocked off Olsen 3-1 to give Princeton its fourth win of the day.
"We felt it would rest on the shoulders of our top five," Callahan said. "The seniors trained the team so hard this week; they have been great leaders. The play of our 6-9 players really impressed me. Nobody gave them a chance, but they played really tough. Yale has the strongest 6-9 in the country, so it was a great tribute to those guys the way they played."
Dent Wilkens (So., Rochester, N.Y.) trailed 2-0 at No. 7, but rallied to get to a fifth game before falling. No. 8 Nathan Beck (So., Andover, Mass.) also fell in five games.
Princeton (4-0, 4-0 Ivy) 5, Yale 4
No. 1 - Yasser El Halaby (P) def. Julian Illingworth 3-2
No. 2 - Will Evans (P) def. Anshul Manchanda 3-0
No. 3 - David Yik (P) def. Avner Geva 3-0
No. 4 - Dan Rutherford (P) def. Joshua Schwartz 3-0
No. 5 - Eric Pearson (P) def. Christopher Olsen 3-1
No. 6 - Aftab Mathur (Y) def. Aaron Zimmerman 3-0
No. 7 - Ryan Byrnes (Y) def. Dent Wilkens 3-2
No. 8 - Gavin Cumberbatch (Y) def. Nathan Beck 3-2
No. 9 - Albert McCrery (Y) def. Rob Siverd 3-1