With Sanchez out, Princeton keeps rolling

When a team's top player is sidelined, it's not uncommon for the rest of the squad to feel the effects of his loss. It's the stuff upsets are made of.

That problem clearly did not affect the men's squash team last weekend. Despite a hamstring injury to No. 1 Mauricio Sanchez that shelved him for the weekend, the Tigers managed to sweep all three of their matches 9-0, surrendering only two games out of the 83 they played in total. Since their season-opening match against Western Ontario two weeks ago, the Tigers have maintained a near-perfect record, losing only one individual match against five opponents.

"It's really easy to have some letdowns," head coach Bob Callahan '77 said, "so the guys across the board really responded well, kept their focus, and we had some really good results. We would have been hard pressed to do any better this weekend."

Play started Saturday with Princeton's first victim of the weekend, the Brown Bears. Filling in at the top spot was junior Kimlee Wong, who easily took out his opponent, Ed Cerullo, 9-1, 9-0, 9-2. Junior Hesham El Halaby hardly broke a sweat in his triple bagel of Adam Greenberg, taking each game by a 9-0 score.

"[The win] feels good," El Halaby said. "It's going to prepare us for next week's [U.S. Squash Racquets Association] tournament up at Yale."

At the No. 3 spot, sophomore David Canner won his match 9-2, 9-0, 9-1, while classmate sophomore Santiago Imberton rolled over his opponent 9-0, 9-1, 9-2 at No. 4. Senior No. 6 Tom McKay, junior No. 8 Scott Callahan and freshman No. 9 Nikhil Seth also recorded easy victories.

Freshmen Peter Sopher, playing at the No. 5 spot, and his twin brother, No. 7 Philip Sopher, also managed to sweep their matches.

Princeton's second opponent of the weekend was Williams, and once again Wong and El Halaby ran through their matches at the top of the lineup. Wong displayed his impressive ability to mix long drives with clutch shots in his 9-0, 9-0, 9-3 win. El Halaby showed off his strength and shot-making ability in his 9-1, 9-2, 9-3 victory over Tony Maruca.

Canner, Imberton, Peter Sopher and McKay — playing in the No. 4 through No. 7 spots, respectively — all won their matches in straight games, as did Scott Callahan, playing at No. 9. At No. 8, Philip Sopher had some difficulty in his match against Bernard Yaros before coming back for a 9-7, 6-9, 8-10, 9-2, 9-5 win.

The match against Williams also let some of the Tiger newcomers demonstrate their talent. Freshman David Letourneau played at the No. 3 spot and took out his opponent 9-2, 9-0, 9-0.

In the afternoon match against Franklin & Marshall, Letourneau played at No. 2 and steamrolled his opponent, Sadiq Madraswla, 9-1, 9-0, 9-0. Canner, Imberton, Peter Sopher, McKay, senior Brendon Bascom, freshman Ed Casserley and freshman Craig Matthews all swept their matches at the No. 3 through No. 9 spots, respectively.

Wong played at No. 1 again and finished with a 9-3, 9-1, 9-2 victory against Christ Garnier. Wong was full of confidence after the match and optimistic in his team's chances in dislodging eight-time defending national champion Trinity.

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"Obviously [the weekend's opponents] are not the top contenders," Wong said. "We kind of thought we would sweep 9-0 ... This year we have a really good chance of putting up more of a fight against Trinity. The whole team is quite psyched for that."

Junior teammate Sanchez, sitting out this weekend in order to "save himself for the match against Trinity," on Jan. 30, said his team is "much better than last year."

And once Sanchez makes his return, that much-improved Tiger squad will learn what it's like to be back to full strength.