Whitman Bombarded by Poor In Squash Tournament Finals

Harvard squash captain Glenn Whitman did something yesterday he hadn't done during the regular season, and learned from it. He lost.

Tom Poor, ranked number one in Massachusetts last year, disposed of Whitman in four games, 15-6, 6-15, 15-13, 15-8, to win the Massachusetts State "A" finals, which were played at the Hemenway courts.

The 30-year old Poor covered the court well and employed a devastating array of sharp angle and three-wall shots to stun Whitman, who last week at Penn established himself as the number one collegiate player in the country.

"The match showed me still to be a green player in high competition," Whitman said. "I haven't matured enough to beat the top guys," he said yesterday.

"If you're gonna win, you have to be cool. I wasn't loose; he was. I got psyched out watching his shots. Nothing I could hit out there would phase him," Whitman said.

"It would have been my biggest win of the year," he said.

The experience of Poor, ranked number six last year by the United States Squash Raquets Association, showed throughout the match. He was unperturbed by Whitman's numerous "let" calls during the first two games. However, during the second game Whitman disputed a "let" call by Poor on a ball which Whitman hit. Poor claimed the ball struck the crack of the door.

Whitman demonstrated savvy during the third game when, down 14-12, court judges granted his appeal that the fifteenth and game-winning point should be played over again because the ball was broken.

"Whitman has lapses, losses of concentration and will lose four or five straight points," Poor said. "It happened to him during the third game, and it's hard to get the points back again. You tend to do that when you're young," he said.

Poor, who plays for the Tennis and Raquet Club of Boston, said his short shots and three-wall shots left Whitman open for put-aways.

Whitman, ranked the number ten college player in the U.S. last year, grabbed this year's number one ranking last week at the National Intercollegiate Squash Championships, although he lost the finals to Mexico's Juan DeVillafrancka--15-11, 17-15, 17-15.