Surprises mark men's squash's win against rival powerhouse Harvard

In what is fast becoming the biggest rivalry in college squash, Princeton (8-0 overall, 6-0 Ivy League) won the latest match 5-4 over Harvard (6-2, 4-1) before 500 stunned fans at the Crimson's Murr Center Sunday to win its second Ivy title in the last three years.

The winner of the Harvard-Princeton match won the Ivy title the last three years, and in each of those years the margin of victory was 5-4.

Head coach Bob Callahan '77 figured Princeton would need to win the top five positions to pull out a victory. Instead, the heroes of this match were two unlikely freshmen, No. 9 Nate Beck and No. 8 Rob Siverd.

The Tigers and the Crimson battled back and forth before knotting the match, 3-3. With three matches left on the court, sophomore No. 7 Aaron Zimmerman was heading toward a loss and junior No. 1 Will Evans appeared to be a sure Princeton win. All eyes fell on the deciding match, played by Beck.

Beck's opponent was Ryan Abraham, who was favored to win the match. Beck pulled out an exciting first game 10-9 win in overtime.

At that point, the crowd realized Beck's would be the deciding match, and all 500 gathered around the court. Beck seemed rattled by the fan's presence, and dropped the second game and fell behind in the third.

With Zimmerman losing at No. 7, a win by Abraham would put the Crimson only one game from victory. But just as he had done last weekend against Yale, Beck seemed to become stronger in the face of adversity. He cut down on his mistakes, and slowly inched his way back into the match.

Beck came back to tie, 8-8, and then won in overtime, 10-9, to take a 2-1 lead.

In a see-saw fourth game, Beck was finally able to take control, after being down 4-5, to win, 9-5. He battled through the pivotal match and produced a gutsy, unlikely win.

"It looked like we were going to lose for 95% of the match," Callahan said. "Then we pulled it out in the last 5%."

This gave the Tigers a 4-3 lead. Junior No. 1 Will Evans finished off the Crimson by defeating Dylan Patterson, 3-0, securing the Ivy title for the Tigers.

Harvard got off to a quick start in the contest when junior No. 6 Thomas Storch beat freshman Dent Wilkins, 3-0, with Wilkins scoring only six points in the three games. No. 4 senior Peter Kelly tied the match at one with a 3-0 victory.

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What transpired next was enough to scare the Princeton faithful down to its core. The reliable junior David Yik was stunned by Harvard sophomore James Bullock, who was able to keep Yik off balance and out of sync.

"Going into the match, No. 2 was one of the matches I thought we would win," Callahan said. "David's loss was a real shock."

To compound the bad news for Tiger fans, Siverd was down two games to one at the No. 8 spot and losing in the fourth game when Yik's match finished. If Siverd lost, the Tigers would have faced a 3-1 deficit.

"If Rob didn't come through, I didn't think we were going to win," Callahan said.

With the entire crowd watching, sensing that this would be a crucial juncture of the match, Siverd strengthened his resolve, and battled both Tomohiro Hamakawa and the vociferous Harvard crowd on his way to a 3-2 victory.

"To be down 8-3, and come back, that was tremendous," Callahan said. "It is unusual to have freshmen come through like that."

The outcome of the match rested in the odd set. Junior No. 5 Eric Pearson, who helped carry the team to victory last weekend against Yale, could not find his touch. He fell quickly, 3-0, to Michael Blumberg. Just as easily, junior Danny Rutherford disposed of Harvard's Isaac Whitman at the No. 3 spot. The match was evened at three, setting the stage for Beck's heroics.

"This is a day we will all remember – a great day for the team and for Princeton squash," Kelly said.