Men's Squash: Princeton eyes shot at history

In stretching the No. 1 Bantams to one of the closest matches between the teams in recent memory, the No. 2 Tigers proved that a new era could soon be upon college squash.

For most of the 20th century, college squash was dominated by the Ivy League. Princeton, Harvard and Yale ruled the scene, with the Crimson often coming out on top.

“Harvard won 56 national championships. Squash was Harvard’s sport,” current Trinity head coach Paul Assaiante said.

Princeton head coach Bob Callahan ’77 starred for the Princeton squad back in the HYP heyday. He said that the world of elite American squash did not acknowledge Trinity until the ’80s. Back then, he said, the Tigers were in a different category altogether.

“We were much better than they were,” Callahan said, recalling his early years as Princeton’s coach. “[Once] in the mid-’80s they had a really good team, but we probably won.”

From the Trinity perspective as well, the matchups were uneven. “Until 10 or 11 years ago … I don’t think Trinity had ever beaten Princeton, and, if we did, it was only a few times,” Assaiante said. College squash’s status quo was shattered in the late ’90s, Callahan said.

“It all happened when the U.S. adopted the international version of the game, which meant that, at that point, it was a version the rest of the world played,” he said.

Princeton was left behind in the stampede to adapt.

“We had just converted over from hard balls to soft balls, and suddenly the best recruits were no longer Americans, but from overseas,” Callahan explained. Trinity pounced. “They aggressively recruited international players, not U.S. players.”

While Princeton supplanted Harvard as the top Ivy team, a bigger shift was taking place on Trinity’s campus in Hartford, Conn.

In December 1998, Trinity’s band of international players defeated both Tufts and MIT. They have not lost since.

For 10 years, Trinity dismantled the competition, raked in national championships and put together a winning streak that currently stands at 199 matches. Some teams came close, including Princeton, but the Bantams were widely considered to be untouchable.

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Assaiante downplayed the streak, calling it “just something to write about.”

He said he prefers to focus on individual matches, each determined by “two men in a cubicle.”

The string of wins is especially noteworthy, however, particularly given the challenges Princeton has mounted against it in recent years.

Since the 2001-02 season, the teams have competed 12 times, four times in the national championship. Trinity has won each matchup, each time in an impressive fashion.

Seven of the 14 victories have been with a score of 8-1. One, the 2006-07 national championship, was a Trinity sweep.

Three times, though, Princeton has come close to taking down the Bantams, falling 5-4.

Though the two teams are clearly the best in the country and have been for quite some time, Callahan said he is hesitant to refer to their relationship as a rivalry.

He equated it to the lopsided “rivalry” in professional tennis between Roger Federer and the oft-overmatched Andy Roddick.

“I’m not really sure they think it’s a rivalry,” Callahan said. “We have come close a few times … which is closer than most of the other teams have come.”

He added that he thinks the Tigers make Trinity nervous. Assaiante acknowledged that the level of Princeton-Trinity competition is unique to squash.

“I’m [also] the tennis coach [at Trinity]. We’re the No. 10 team in Division III in tennis. We would lose to Princeton’s [junior varsity] team … It’s laughable.”

He was more willing than Callahan to label the Princeton-Trinity relationship, saying of the squash teams, “The rivalry [is] something relatively new.”

Despite Trinity’s historic 199-match streak, the Tigers nearly stole the show last weekend. “After Saturday, it’s even,” Assaiante said. “They’re fantastic.”

Assaiante noted that for all the hype surrounding Trinity’s success, Princeton has gathered an impressive team of its own, which he attributed to Callahan.

“Callahan has done an amazing job,” Assaiante said. “This year, [Princeton] has only dropped two games [against teams other than Trinity]. That’s about as much domination as you can have in the Ivy League.”

He added that Callahan’s outreach and Princeton’s campus have contributed to the Tigers’ growth. “Bob is doing a great job recruiting, [and] Princeton just gets more and more beautiful every day,” he said. “It’s the place to go right now.”

Assaiante noted that Princeton historically has had a strong top of the lineup. “Princeton has won more intercollegiate singles championships than anyone,” he said, citing Yasser El Halaby ’06, whom he called “the greatest player in college squash history, no dispute.”

El Halaby, who now plays professionally, won four individual national titles in his time at Princeton, an unprecedented feat.

Now, much of Princeton’s strength lies in its depth. Assaiante noted that on Saturday, 23 matches were played in total, though only the top nine officially count. He emphasized that in the 14 non-scoring matches, Princeton took down the Bantams 13-1.

Assaiante said, “The way the players conduct themselves, it’s incredible.” Callahan attributed much of the team’s maturity to the team’s “three amigos”: Senior tri-captains No. 1 Mauricio Sanchez, No. 2 Kimlee Wong and No. 6 Hesham El Halaby — Yasser’s younger brother — have helped lead the team for four years.

“This is probably one of the most special classes in the history of Princeton squash,” Callahan said. The three are “the reason we have won four straight Ivies.” He noted that all three players beat Trinity their freshman year.

Assaiante acknowledged that his team’s streak will not last forever. Jokingly, he said that when Trinity finally loses, “The sky is going to get dark, and rivers are going to turn red, and frogs are going to fall out of the sky.”

This apocalyptic prediction may be an exaggeration, but Saturday was not the first time Princeton had the Bantams worrying about their streak. In 2006, Yasser El Halaby came within one point of propelling the Tigers to a win over Trinity before eventually losing to Sweden’s Gustav Detter, now the Bantams’ No. 2 player.

Yasser El Halaby said he is still bothered by that match.

Asked if he wished he had done anything differently in his career playing against Trinity, Yasser El Halaby immediately said, “definitely winning that one point.”

While that haunting moment once ranked as a defining moment in the rivalry, Callahan and Assaiante both said that Saturday’s match had a chance of supplanting it.

Callahan explained that Princeton’s close loss “does add to the lore, as Trinity’s streak continues. We hunt them down, [and] we’re going to keep trying … They escaped another close one. They escaped because they are the better team.”

When the idea was proposed to Assaiante that Saturday’s match would go down in the history of Tigers-Bantams squash, he said, “Oh my God, yes! Stay tuned, same channel next Sunday.”

On Sunday, the national championship will be decided in Jadwin Gymnasium. Unless all projections are dead wrong, the top two teams will meet again. Needless to say, both sides are preparing for battle.

As Princeton assumes the role of challenger, Assaiante said that Trinity was not taking the Tigers lightly.

“We are going to hang on by our fingernails for as long as we can,” he said. “We are hearing the scratching on the blackboard.”

The squash world will certainly be watching as Trinity goes for its 200th consecutive win and 11th straight national title.

Vincent Yu ’07, who faced Trinity in each of his four years at Princeton, said he has been following the team from Hong Kong.

Though he will be in Asia on Sunday, he said he wishes he could be there. “I would not have a doubt that we have a chance to win the match,” he said. “It will not be easy, for sure, because Trinity would never let go of their trophy easily. We would have to take it from them.”

The elder El Halaby said he would “definitely” be there. Detter, the player who beat him three years ago, will most likely play Wong at the No. 2 spot.

Despite not being on the team anymore, Yasser El Halaby is clearly still attached to it and to his near-win in 2006. However, that could all change this year, he said. “Hopefully, I’ll manage to move past it once we win on Sunday.”