Racquetmen Prove They Are the Best

In the words of Yogi Berra, it was deja vu all over again.

The Harvard men's squash team ripped through Yale, 8-1, to claim the Intercollegiate Team Championship in New Haven, Conn.

This was the Crimson's second 8-1 thrashing of the Elis in five days. Last week, the Crimson won the nineman national title at Yale.

Harvard has now gone undefeated this season, capturing virtually every amateur available to them.

To top it all off, Harvard's top six players were named first-team All-America: sophomore Adrian Ezra, senior Jeremy Fraiberg, senior Jonny Kaye, senior Farokh Pandole, senior George Polsky, junior Marty Clark.

"It's a fairy tale ending to a magical season," Pandole said. "It just doesn't get any better than this."

Senior Co-Captain Jonny Kaye said that the team's talent, commitment to hard work and cohesiveness has been responsible for the Crimson's immense success.

"All the players are really close and we've trained extremely hard together," Kaye said. "But the deciding factor has really been Coach [Steve] Piltch and the rest of the staff. They've definitely done a fantastic job here."

Heavy Favorite

After 9-0 wins against Franklin and Marshall and Western Ontario Saturday, the Crimson moved on to the finals of the tournament Sunday.

Harvard found itself matched against its ancient and familiar foe, the Elis, which had narrowly defeated Princeton, 5-4, the day before.

Coming into the the final round, Harvard was the heavy favorite.

"The whole weekend people put a lot of pressure on us," junior Neal Tew said. "It made us feel that we had to live up to their expectations."

In fact, a former President of the United States Squash and Racquet Association called the team one of the best that has ever come out of Harvard--an impressive distinction considering the Crimson's long history of squash prowess.

Harvard's only loss for the weekend came at the number nine position where Tew fell to Yale's Roger Argoon (15-12, 18-16, 15-14).