Men's team's quest for Ivy League championship leads through Harvard

Harvard and Yale. For any Tiger, the immediate thoughts upon hearing these words are of rivals and of inferiors. This is no different for the men's squash team, who will continue their heated rivalries this season with the goal of recapturing the Ivy League title.

Last year, the Tigers lost the title they won in 2000 as the Crimson beat them in a nail-biting match that came down to the last game out of nine. The teams were knotted at four games apiece.

Princeton charges into this season with a handful of savvy veterans mixed with some inexperienced, but promise-filled newcomers. At the top of the list is defending national individual champion, junior co-captain, David Yik.

Head coach Bob Callahan '77 is optimistic that the veterans will lead the rest of the squad, and that the newcomers will come on strong to round out the nine person team.

"Our top five is our strength and needs to do well for us to succeed," Callahan said, "but they need to help bring along the number six through nine guys, give them confidence."

The Tigers return the top five players from last year's squad, with Yik leading the way. Yik is the defending national individual champion, following his brother Peter '01, who had won the honor the previous two years. Behind Yik are juniors Will Evans and Dan Rutherford. Evans and Rutherford will begin the season in a battle for the No. 2 spot on the team. Rounding out the top five are senior co-captain Peter Kelly and junior Eric Pearson.

All five players were All-Americans last season, with Yik and Evans earning first team All-American honors and Rutherford, Kelly, and Pearson earning second-team honors.

"We have our nucleus back," Callahan said. "We're blessed because we have five top players who are as strong as any top five in the country. Four of them are juniors and one is a senior, so they've played together for three years."

The spots below the top five will feature new faces for the Tigers this season. Three members of the team who filled these spots graduated in May, however, there is plenty of fresh and returning talent to fill these areas. Freshman Dent Wilkins will begin the season in the No. 6 spot, while sophomore Aaron Zimmerman will probably start in the No. 7 position.

"Dent was highly ranked in the juniors on the national level," Callahan said. "[Zimmerman] was injured for most of last year, so its like having a new player this year."

The keys for the Tigers are keeping the top five healthy and playing well, while developing their younger talent in the process. That talent will have most of the season to mature, as the Tigers most important battles fall late in the season. On Feb. 2, the Tigers host Yale, followed by a match at Harvard on Feb. 10, and finishing with Trinity College here on Feb. 16.

Those two weeks will most probably determine the success of Princeton's season. Victories against Yale and Harvard would nearly ensure Princeton another Ivy League title. The Tigers were given their first glance at the competition this past weekend at the Ivy Scrimmage. Princeton finished second in the tournament that included all eight teams in the league, losing to Harvard in the finals. The team did defeat Yale on the way to this finish.

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The Tigers are not quite on the level of Trinity. Princeton and the rest of the NCAA teams just switched to the international style of squash in 1993 — thus, many of the top players in the country are international students and Trinity college has been able to recruit most of these players. Trinity currently has only two American players on the team.

The Tigers have not yet begun to look forward at the daunting task of defeating Trinity. Their first priority is recapturing the Ivy League crown. According to Callahan the Tigers have a great shot at doing just that.

"This should be a very exciting season. I am really pleased with the work ethic and team spirit they have shown," Callahan said. "We have the potential to have a tremendously successful year."

Tiger fans are hoping this is the case, for a successful season would include victories over Harvard and Yale.