Princeton University Athletics
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Men's Squashes Repeats As Ivy League Champions With 7-2 Win Over Harvard
February 09, 2003 | Men's Squash
Feb. 9, 2003
Led by the heroic play of seniors Dan Rutherford (Calgary, Alberta) and Eric Pearson (Philadelphia, Pa.), the Princeton men's squash team matched a program record by clinching its third Ivy League title in four years with a 7-2 victory over Harvard. Rutherford and Pearson, one half of the greatest class in Princeton squash history, joined classmates Will Evans (Auckland, New Zealand) and David Yik (North Vancouver, B.C.) in winning key matches in front of an enthusiastic crowd at the Jadwin Squash Courts.
Rutherford, who missed Saturday's match with Dartmouth due to a bad back, gave Princeton a crucial 2-1 lead in the first shift of matches with a hard-fought 3-1 win over Dylan Patterson. Playing his first collegiate match that his father was able to attend, Rutherford rallied in the second game to take a 2-0 lead and held off a charge in the fourth game to win an emotional 3-1 contest. The senior pumped his fist to a large crowd that gathered around his court. "We had to have that match," head coach Bob Callahan, who also won three Ivy League titles during his career at Princeton, said afterwards. "Yesterday, we debated if we were strong enough to rest Danny and Eric. Dan came up to me 15 minutes before the match, and the player that he is, told me he could play. I told the team that we wouldn't play him, but they were not to let Danny down."
They didn't, sweeping Dartmouth 9-0 to stay in position to clinch the Ivy title outright, and Rutherford responded with the big win. After the first shift, Princeton and Harvard were even at 2-2, as Evans swept James Bullock 3-0. Harvard earned wins at No. 6 from Asher Hochberg and at No. 8 from Guarav Yadav, that latter in a gutsy, five-game battle with Nathan Beck (Andover, Mass.), the hero of the 5-4 win at Harvard last year.
The second shift belonged to Princeton, and because of it, so does the Ivy League championship.
Yasser El-Halaby (Fr., Cairo, Egypt) took some time to get his game going against Harvard's No. 1 player, Will Broadbent. Broadbent held a game ball in the opener, but the freshman phenom rallied to take the game 10-8 and would roll to a 3-0 win. At the same time, No. 9 Rob Siverd was in the process of a 3-0 sweep of Indrek Vainu. His match gave Yik, Pearson and No. 7 Dent Wilkens (Rochester, N.Y.) each a chance to win their respective matches and clinch the title.
They each took it, but Pearson did it first. After two solid wins in the first pair of games, Pearson faced his toughest challenge in the third game. Having battled illness that kept him out of practice during the week and the Dartmouth match yesterday, Pearson watched an 8-5 lead evaporate into a 9-8 deficit in the third game. The senior, labeled by two-time intercollegiate champion Peter Yik '00 a "big-match player" after the contest, fought back to take the third and final game 10-9.
Wilkens, who had been swept by Thomas Storch 3-0 last year, took his match in four games, and Yik ended the day with a hard-fought 3-2 win over Michael Blumberg.
"I really wanted the seniors to have this moment," Callahan said. "We had four goals this season, and we've taken care of three of them. One was to win the preseason Ivy League tournament. The second was to win the national five-man tournament. The third was to win the Ivy League title. Now we turn our attention to trying to get to the finals of the National Team Championships here at Princeton in two weeks."
The seniors were undefeated in Ivy League play this year, as was El-Halaby. Princeton will take on Trinity, the defending national champion, at Trinity next Sunday.
Princeton 7, Harvard 2
No. 1 - Yasser El-Halaby (P) def. Will Broadbent 3-0
No. 2 - Will Evans (P) def. James Bullock 3-0
No. 3 - David Yik (P) def. Michael Blumberg 3-2
No. 4 - Dan Rutherford (P) def. Dylan Patterson 3-1
No. 5 - Eric Pearson (P) def. Isaac Whitman 3-0
No. 6 - Asher Hochberg (H) def. Aaron Zimmerman 3-1
No. 7 - Dent Wilkens (P) def. Thomas Storch 3-1
No. 8 - Gaurav Yadav (H) def. Nathan Beck 3-2
No. 9 - Rob Siverd (P) def. Indrek Vainu 3-0