Quaker Racquetmen Take Six-Man Title

(Special to the CRIMSON)

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., March 7-Penn's varsity squash team won four consecutive head-to-head matches with the Crimson Saturday and took the six-man intercollegiate team title from Harvard for the first time in six years. Penn edged Harvard by two points, 33-31, so a victory in any of those four matches would have given the Crimson a tie for the championship.

In individual matches today, however, the Crimson came out on top of Penn in the final day competition by winning both the "B" and "C" division championships. Captain Ed Atwood displayed an amazing array of shots in disposing of Quaker captain Jeff Condon in three games, while sophomore Dan Gordon easily topped Penn's Charlie Jacobs, 15-11, 15-6, 15-11, in the "C" final.

In a personal feud in the "A" division championship, Penn's Palmer Page beat teammate Eliot Berry. But Berry made sure Page took no honor from winning as he threw the match after falling behind and left his team-mate with an empty victory.

In the first of four crucial team matches Saturday, Peter Briggs lest to Berry, 15-5, 15-13, 7-15, 15-9. Berry Played an unbelievable first game to win easily, but Briggs came back to be on top of the game at the three-game break. After the intermission, however. Briggs let Berry control the center of the court. Positioning himself behind his opponent, Briggs left himself on the defensive and eventually lest.

A victory by Alan Quasha over Jacobs would have maintained Harvard's one-point lead in the team competition, but Quasha started slowly and fell victim to an extremely "hot" opponent. Pushing the match into a fifth game, Quasha hit the tin three times after 11-9, and lost. 15-10.

Harvard still had a chance to tie Penn for the team title with a victory in the Condon-Jaime Gonzalez match in the "B" division. Gonzalez hit several fine drop shots to win two of the first three games. But the senior racquetman played defensively in the fourth game, and when he tried to rally in the fifth, his drop shot hit the tin.