Raquetmen Quash Big Green; Top Seven Seeds String Wins

The Crimson netmen whitewashed the Dartmouth nine 7-2 on a Saturday afternoon roadswing, as Coach Jack Barnaby's charges snowballed to an unblemished 5-0 season mark.

An overflow gallery was on hand to watch the top seven seeds plaster the Big Green in the two-tiered squash complex, dubbed the Hanover Coliseum by the visiting racquetmen and sometimes fondly referred to as "Hangover Coliseum."

The squad once again displayed the impressive depth and grab bag of strokes that has been the hallmark of Barnaby's six previous national-championship teams.

Number one seed Bill Kaplan saw his match strung out to five games before he dispatched Dartmouth's Scott McAllister. In the deciding point of the final game, Kaplan capped a torrid rally by caroming a singing corner shot by McAllister to put the wraps on a 17-16 win.

John Havens bagged the Crimson's next win, shellacking his second-seeded opponent, 15-6, 15-9, 15-10. Captain Jeff Weigand fueled the winning effort with a straight sets victory, dishing out a 15-1 thumping in the final stanza.

Cass Sunstein was the hatchetman on the Crimson's Murderer's Row, despite a bulbous and festering blister that sprouted on his racquet hand while he was cramming for his law boards. Sunstein throttled his opponent in four games after the hand was hermetically sealed in a sable golf glove.

Peter Havens applied the screws to his adversary, racking up the largest overall point spread of the day. Sixth and seventh seeds Mark Panarese and Ned Bacon also turned in flawless gems, putting the whammy on the Big Green in straight sets.

The only bitter pills the racquetemen had to swallow came when Ted Humphreville ended up on the short side of a 3-2 squeaker and an ailing Scott Mead was mowed in three games.

The Crimson may have "swept away" this contest, as Ned Bacon phrased it, but the squad entwines a Princeton club on February 7 that will not be such a lark. Princeton is bristling with racquet talent but the Crimson hope to humble the Tigers with their well-honed array of drop shots, reverse corners, and three-wall nicks.