Men's Squash Tops Yale, Will Battle For National Title At Home Sunday

Feb. 22, 2003

PRINCETON, N.J. - It'll be Princeton and Trinity once again. The Princeton men's squash team earned a shot at the 2003 CSA national championship Saturday with a 7-2 win over Yale, a team that nearly topped the Tigers three weeks earlier. Princeton played one of its best matches of the season, and led by its historic Class of 2003, the Tigers will play one final time this year at the Jadwin Squash Courts.

Over the last couple of years, including the 5-4 Princeton win earlier this month, Yale has been unable to win one of the top five matches to go along with its sweep of the bottom four matches. Today, the Bulldogs found out early that even one match in the top five would not be enough. Instead of the traditional two-round format (matches 2,4,6,8 are followed by matches 1-3-5-7-9), there were three rounds of matches (3-6-9, 2-5-8, 1-4-7). Senior David Yik, the 2001 intercollegiate champion, earned a 3-0 win over Avner Geva for the first Princeton win. At No. 9, Rob Siverd gave Princeton a major boost by rallying from a 2-1 deficit to top A.J. McCreary 3-2. Siverd had lost 3-1 to McCreary in the first meeting between the two schools this year.

Princeton took two of three matches in the second round, as both No. 2 Will Evans and No. 5 Eric Pearson took 3-1 decisions.

The Tigers needed only one win in the final three matches to clinch its second straight trip to the team finals. As it turned out, they won all three. Freshman Yasser El-Halaby, the No. 1 player for Princeton who suffered his first collegiate loss last week, bounced back with a 3-0 win over Julian Illingworth. El-Halaby, the No. 2 player in the country, had trailed Illingoworth, ranked third, 2-0 in games and match ball before rallying to win the critical 3-2 decision a month ago. There would be significantly less drama here, as El-Halaby stayed perfect at home with a 3-0 win. No. 4 Dan Rutherford and No. 7 Dent Wilkens also earned victories.

Princeton will face Trinity, which has a 90-match winning streak entering tomorrow's final. Trinity topped No. 4 Harvard 8-1, although it received a bit of a surprise when the No. 1 player in the country, Bernardo Samper, fell to Harvard's Will Broadbent 3-0. Samper and El-Halaby will meet in the top match tomorrow; the top two players in the country have split with each other this year, with El-Halaby winning 3-1 at the National Five-Man championships, and Samper winning 3-0 at home last weekend.

The championship match will begin at noon.

Princeton 7, Yale 2

No. 1 - Yasser El-Halaby (P) def. Julian Illingworth 3-0
No. 2 - Will Evans (P) def. Anshul Manchanda 3-1
No. 3 - David Yik (P) def. Avner Geva 3-0
No. 4 - Dan Rutherford (P) def. Josh Schwartz, inj. def.
No. 5 - Eric Pearson (P) def. Aftab Mathur 3-1
No. 6 -Chris Olsen (Y) def. Aaron Zimmerman 3-1
No. 7 - Dent Wilkens (P) def. Gavin Cumberbatch 3-0
No. 8 - Ryan Byrnes (Y) def. Nathan Beck 3-1
No. 9 - Rob Siverd (P) def. A.J. McCreary 3-2

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