Women's squash falls to Penn, men defeat Yale, Quakers

The men's and women's squash teams were nearly perfect over intersession. The men walked away with a blowout and a narrow victory while the women suffered a close loss before blowing away their next three opponents.

Traveling to Yale Saturday, the men's team came away with a 5-4 victory over the Elis (9-2 overall, 3-1 Ivy League) to remain perfect on the season. The Tigers (7-0, 4-0) also whitewashed Penn (8-4, 1-3) 9-0 on Thursday, with all nine players winning their matches 3-0.

The women have gone 3-1 since exam period. Princeton lost to Penn 6-3, and defeated Yale, Amherst and Williams, 8-1, 9-0 and 8-1, respectively. The visiting Quakers (5-1, 4-0) handed the Tigers a 6-3 loss in their drive to repeat as national champions. Princeton No. 1 senior Julia Beaver lost to Penn's Runa Reta for her first-ever dual meet loss in over three years of competition.

After cruising past Penn at home, the men traveled to New Haven, Conn., to play one of their toughest Ivy League opponents. Yale had defeated Princeton on its rowdy home court, 5-4, two years earlier in a hard fought match and the Tigers were looking to prevent that from happening again.

'Intense atmosphere'

"They definitely billed the match as a big event," senior captain Marshall Sebring said. "They had about 200 fans there. It was an intense atmosphere to be playing in."

After the first round of play, the Tigers found themselves in an unfamiliar position this season — down 3-1. Sophomore No. 2 Will Evans was defeated by Peter Grote, 3-1, and No. 6 Sebring and freshman No. 8 Will Osnato each lost 3-0. Only sophomore No. 4 Dan Rutherford was able to pull away for a much needed win against the Elis, 3-1.

"The momentum was against us," head coach Bob Callahan '77 said.

Things did not look good for the Tigers in the second round of matches. It appeared early on that senior No. 7 Randolph McEvoy, would probably drop his match, so the other four Tigers would have to run the table if Princeton was to escape with a win.

Sophomore No. 1 David Yik started to turn the Tigers' fortune with a 3-0 victory over Yale's Anshul Manchanda.

"David Yik played really, really well," Sebring said. "He's playing probably his best squash right now."

Junior No. 3 Peter Kelly and sophomore No. 5 Eric Pearson also dropped their opponents by scores of 3-0, setting up the 4-4 tie and placing that much more importance on the final matchup of the day — senior No. 9 Harrison Gabel's comeback against Ziad Haider.

After dropping the first game, Gabel came from behind to claim the next three games and secure Princeton's 5-4 victory over Yale.

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"Kind of like he's done these last few times, [Gabel] has just been amazing coming back in the second and picking up his game," Callahan said.

The women would not have the same luck or a come-from-behind victory in their key match against Penn. Senior No. 2 Meredith Quick, junior No. 6 Anna Minkowski, and senior No. 7 Rebecca Gutner were the only Tigers to win their matches, with two of those being decided in five games.

Princeton easily finished off Yale 8-1 on Saturday, but its chances for an Ivy League title are all but gone. The Tigers will have to regroup and concentrate on the upcoming Howe Cup to redeem their season.

Earlier in the break at the 22nd annual Constable Invitational, Beaver avenged a loss from her junior year at the tournament by winning this year's individual title. The senior won the championship Jan. 28 by defeating Nina Hehal of Trinity in four games, 10-8, 9-4, 4-9, 9-6.

"It was one of her best performances ever," head coach Gail Ramsay '75 said. "She got off to a slow start, but she came back to win a very tough match."