Tigers shock Bulldogs to take third at national tournament

With an extraordinary 162-30 record in his 25 years of coaching, men's squash head coach Bob Callahan has had a career full of huge victories.

Yet Callahan referred to team's performance in last weekend's National Team Tournament as the highlight of his career.

"Through all the adversity, the team just kept working harder and harder," Callahan said. "I am so proud of the whole team and all they have accomplished."

At the tournament this weekend in Cambridge, Mass., the Tigers took home third place after two enormous upsets. Ranked fifth coming into the weekend, Princeton climbed two places by overcoming fourth-ranked Penn in the quarterfinals and third-ranked Yale in the battle for third place.

The Tigers' last match of the weekend, a clash with the Bulldogs, was certainly Princeton's most satisfying victory. Only a month ago, the Tigers suffered an 8-1 defeat to Yale in the squads' regular season matchup. Yet, everyone on the Princeton team believed they had the ability to beat the Bulldogs.

"I knew we would win if we played well," said junior No. 1 Yasser El-Halaby, two-time defending national individual champion. "On Sunday, the guys delivered. You could see the determination in everyone's eyes."

The Tigers managed to take down the Bulldogs 6-3. The three matches that Yale won were all 3-0 victories, while four of the Princeton wins went to four or more games.

With three games going on at a time, players were frantically trying to keep track of what was happening on the courts beside them while maintaining their focus on the match they were involved in.

"All the guys played well; some of the matches were just pure guts prevailing in the end," El-Halaby said.

Thumping the Quakers

In this single-elimination tournament, Princeton got to the semifinals with its resounding defeat of Penn in the quarterfinal matchup. The Tigers dominated the Quakers, winning by a large margin, 8-1. That score included three 3-0 matches and four more matches that ended 3-1 in Princeton's favor.

After the quarterfinal upset, the Tigers were unable to pull off an even larger upset against perennial men's squash powerhouse Trinity. Along with six consecutive national team titles, the Bantams owned a number of other impressive streaks heading into the weekend's match. The Bantams have a winning streak of 125 matches dating back to 1998 — the longest winning streak in intercollegiate varsity sports. Over the seven-year span of Trinity's reign, it has gone 17-0 in each season.

Considering the Bantams' strength, the Tigers' 8-1 loss in that semifinal match was not surprising. Though El-Halaby pulled off a 3-0 win over the Bantams' Bernardo Samper, none of his teammates earned a win for the Tigers. Trinity went on to beat Harvard 7-2 for its seventh national title in a row, and Princeton went on to its huge upset of Yale.

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The Tigers were plagued by injuries all season long, making their final status as third in the nation all the more impressive. After its season opener in November against Cornell, all nine returning Tigers were struggling with injuries. They fought back all season and were ecstatic with the win in the battle against Yale.

The Tigers' team season is over, but for El-Halaby there is still one more mountain to climb. Next week is the national individual tournament, in which El-Halaby will look to defend his title in hopes of winning what would be his third straight national championship.