Racquetmen Sail Through Weekend

The five seniors on the Harvard men's squash team--playing their last home games at Hemenway Gym this weekend--led in the trouncing of Pennsylvania and Princeton this weekend.

The Crimson was perfect in both of the Ivy League matches, blanking the Quakers on Saturday and repeating the shutout on Sunday with an impressive 9-0 win against the Tigers.

"I'm really pleased," Harvard Coach Steve Piltch said. "It's hard not to be when we win 9-0, and our seniors have done a tremendous job."

Against Penn, Harvard did not drop a game as all nine players won their best of five matches in three straight games.

Harvard expected the Tigers to be tougher than Penn, and they were--but not much tougher. Harvard beat Princeton handily as well.

Seniors Jeremy Fraiberg, Johnny Kaye, Farokh Pandole and George Polsky said they were all looking forward to their last match at home against Princeton.

The other senior on the team, Colin Campbell, was unable to play because of the flu.

"I was very excited to play my last game at Hemenway," said the top seeded Fraiberg. "Princeton is always the biggest match of the year."

Fraiberg stayed true to his usual championship form, beating the -topside Tiger, Alex Marx, in three straight games.

But Fraiberg's opponent turned up the heat at the end, leading 8-4 at one point. Fraiberg battled back and took the lead, but the Tiger came up with a late surge to force the third game into a five-point tie breaker.

Spectators crammed into Hemenway Gym's tiny obeservation area to watch the two men fight it out. Fraiberg lost two points early but won four straight to end the game and match 18-16.

Number four seed Pandole won his match easily despite having to sit out Saturday with a strained groin.

"I was worried because I hadn't played for two days, but I ended up moving pretty well," Pandole said.

Sophomore and number two seed Adrian Ezra said he was confident from the start.

"I think we were expected to win, so we didn't disappoint anybody," he said.

Ezra used his court quickness to frustrate his opponent. The Tiger could only watch as he hit balls that appeared to be unreachable come back at him.

Co-Captain Kaye also won his match relatively quickly and said he was extremely pleased with the final results.

"I couldn't have thought of a nicer way to end the season at Hemenway," Kaye said.

But Polsky, the other co-captain and the number five seed, realized that his squash career was coming to a close.

"When I saw my last ball drop into the nick, it hit me that my days of competitive squash at Hemenway Gym had come to a tasty yet bitter sweet end," Polsky said.