Men's Squash: Tigers gear up for another run at Potter Cup

What the 1990–1993 Buffalo Bills are to the Super Bowl, the men’s squash team is to the Potter Cup, the trophy awarded to the winner of the national team championship. Like the Bills teams of that era, Princeton has lost in the final match of the national tournament four years in a row. Each of those losses came at the hands of Trinity, a team that brings a streak of 221 wins and 11 national titles into this year’s tournament, which takes place this weekend at Yale.

This year, because of 5-4 losses to Ivy League Champion No. 2 Yale and No. 3 Rochester, the Tigers (10-3 overall, 5-1 Ivy League) have fallen to No. 4 in the rankings and will be on the same side of the eight-team bracket as No. 1 Trinity (19-0).

This means that, in all likelihood, the Tigers will have to snap the longest win streak in the history of college sports — by beating the Trinity team that blanked them 9-0 last weekend — to make it back to the national final.

Before looking ahead to Saturday’s potential semifinal matchup with Trinity, Princeton must focus on Friday’s first-round opponent, No. 5 Harvard (5-4, 4-2). The Tigers took care of the Crimson 7-2 two weekends ago without junior No. 2 Dave Letourneau.

One thing the Tigers have going for them this weekend is the element of surprise. As is normally the case, Princeton has already played the other seven teams in the tournament bracket, but for five of those matches — including the loss to Rochester — key starters were injured. Only Yale and Trinity have seen the full lineup of head coach Bob Callahan ’77, and even then, Princeton had key players hampered by injuries.

Assuming Princeton does face Trinity in the semifinals, the lineup will likely be identical to that from last weekend’s contest, which means the Tigers will need to find five wins out of those nine losses.

While that may seem like a daunting task, Princeton’s lineup will include four players — sophomore No. 3 Chris Callis, senior No. 4 and tri-captain David Canner, sophomore No. 5 Kelly Shannon and junior No. 8 Peter Sopher — who won individual matches against Trinity last season.

The Tigers can also reasonably hope for a win from freshman No. 1 Todd Harrity. Last weekend, Harrity was tied 9-9 in the fifth game with Trinity senior Baset Chaudhry before losing 11-9. Chaudhry has won the last two individual national championships.

Harrity will have his work cut out for him both against Chaudhry — who, at 6 feet, 5 inches, has a knack for getting in the way — and in the first round against Harvard No. 1 Colin West, who topped Harrity in four games earlier this year.

The freshman phenom is excited for the chance to avenge his only two losses of the season.

“I respect Colin and Baset a lot, and, after our matches, they respect me, too,” Harrity said. “When I fell short against Baset, I immediately thought, ‘I can’t wait until next weekend.’ ”

Harrity said he plans to disrupt West’s rhythm by mixing up the pace of play and will try to wear down Chaudhry by forcing him to move his mass around the court.

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“I’m definitely going to use what I learned and prepare differently for those matches this time,” Harrity said.

If the freshman upsets Chaudhry, that could very well be the catalyst that propels the Tigers to an unexpected shot at the title on Sunday.

The Tigers also hope junior No. 2 Dave Letourneau can avenge a string of close losses to Trinity’s No. 2, Parth Sharma.

Last weekend, Sharma captured a 3-1 win over Letourneau, who was still nursing an ankle injury from a few weeks earlier.

This time around, Letourneau will look to turn the tables and give Princeton a key win near the top of the lineup.

Though Princeton has a more difficult road to the finals for the Potter Cup than in past years, the team hopes to do something quarterback Jim Kelly’s Bills never managed: make it to the championship for a fifth straight year and come away with the title.