Princeton Posts Another Thrilling Upset, Powers Past #5 Columbia 5-4

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With another upset in the balance, head coach Sean Wilkinson couldn't have been happier to see two of his captains still on court.

A trio of early five-game victories put #8 Princeton in position to knock off a higher-ranked team for the second time in six days, and co-captains Adham ElSherbiny and Gabriel Morgan pushed the Tigers over the finish line with late wins in a 5-4 upset of #5 Columbia. The win moves Princeton to 6-6 overall, 3-3 in the Ivy League; the Tigers can secure winning records in both Sunday with a noon victory over Cornell in Ithaca, N.Y.

With the match all square at 3-3, ElSherbiny battled back from a pair of tough 11-9 losses during a marathon fifth game against Aditya Kankariya. The Columbia freshman grabbed a handful of one-point leads in the finale, but the Princeton senior captain rallied back to grab a match ball at 10-9. Kankariya fought one off, but ElSherbiny earned another and finished the biggest win of his career 12-10 in the fifth.

Columbia won a five-game match at #7, which left the match to be decided on Court 3, where Morgan was even with Carter Robitaille 1-1 after two games. The junior captain and one of Princeton's emotional leaders would not be denied over the final two games, which he dominated by scored of 11-4 and 11-2 to post his 10th win of the season. That victory provided both the ideal conclusion to Senior Day, as well as another sign of the program's potential over the coming years.

Key reasons for that potential helped Princeton in position for the win. Junior Henry Parkhurst posted arguably the biggest win of his career when he overcame losses in the third and fourth games to knock off Krish Kapur 11-7 in the fifth of their match at #8. Freshman Howe Cheng remained undefeated on the season with a 3-2 win at #6, a victory that included a wild third-game rally that stunned Columbia's Adham Madi. Sophomore Alex Engstrom closed a 3-1 opening shift with a thriller of his own; he outlasted Robin Mann in a 15-13 heartstopping fourth game, and then he rode that momentum to an 11-3 win in the fifth.

PRINCETON 5, COLUMBIA 4
1 – Velavan Senthikumamar (C) d. Adhitya Raghavan 9, 2, (9), 5
2 – James Wyatt (C) d. Clark Doyle 7, 7, (7), 6
3 – Callan Hall (C) d. Daelum Mawji 4, 5, (3), 6
4 – Alex Engstrom (P) d. Robin Mann (10), 10, (5), 13, 3
5 – Gabriel Morgan (P) d. Carter Robitaille 7, (8), 4, 2
6 – Howe Cheng (P) d. Adham Madi 8, (8), 9, (8), 7
7 – Rahul Sehrawat (C) d. Duncan Joyce (8), 5, (6), 2, 9
8 – Henry Parkhurst (P) d. Krish Kapur 7, 4, (5), (3), 7
9 – Adham ElSherbiny (P) d. Aditya Kankariya 3, 8, (9), (9), 10

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