Racquetmen Falter in National Finals

It finally happened The Harvard men's squash team lost a match But it wasn't just any match--it was the National Amateur Championships in Cleveland, and it lost in the finals to a team of the best adult players from Mexico.

The racquetmen started well in the fiveman tournament, blowing off a Chicago city team 5-0 in the quarterfinals, after receiving a bye in the first round The Crimson then triumphed over a tough squad from Toronto, 3-2, to earn the honor of facing the Mexicans in the championships.

Though the Harvard team triumphed last year in the same tournament, only two members of that team. Jim Lubowitz and Richard Jackson, returned on this year's team. The other three--Spencer Brog. Peter Dinneen, and freshman Joe Dowling--played in the championship for the first time.

In addition, the Mexican team was not invited to the 1983 Championships, so the challenge to last year's Crimson squad was considerably less.

All five matches in the finals were played at once, preventing Harvard Coach Dave Fish from effectively watching and coaching each of his players.

Close One

The matches were close Co-Captains Brog and Lubowitz both lost in four games Dinneen romped 3-0, and Dowling came back after being crushed in the first game to triumph, 3-1.

Jackson, sidelined most of this season with a series of injuries, played well throughout the tournament but was narrowly defeated in the finals, 3-2. A one-game shift in the out-come of Jackson's final match would have given Harvard the championship.

"It's exciting to go this far," said Fish "Last year's team won, so of course the guys are disappointed But before that, we hadn't won since 1963. They came so close. It's tough But the whole idea is to challenge ourselves against much stiffer competition They should be very proud," he added.

Happineas

The outcome in the singles championship was happier Harvard's Kenton Jernigan, who won as a frosh last year, drummed Mexico's number one and two players on his way to successfully defending the crown.

"I'm very pleased with Kenton," said Fish. "He's had an up and down year, and there was huge pressure on him to win this [tournament] again. He was not feeling very confident, but he played very well," Fish added.

Harvard's second team too played well, defeating a tough Williams team, after first losing to the Mexicans.

Harvard has an easy match at Dartmouth on Wednesday, then returns home for the season's most important dual match, against Princeton on Saturday. Fish doesn't expect the loss to Mexico to have a detrimental effect on his team's performance against the Tigers. "They have worked hard all year. I expect them to bounce back, but it's really up to them, how they decide to deal with it," he said.