M. Squash Loses to Trinity in Finals of Team Championship

Coaches tweaked their lineups to produce favorable match-ups.

Players donned their favorite bandanas and wristbands in homage to the squash gods who were surely watching from above.

Parents bit their nails and teammates pumped their fists.

But even the state-of-the-art climate control system at Yale's Brady Squash Center could not prevent the temperature from rising a few degrees.

With all the trappings that accompany a national championship event, the Trinity men's squash team outlasted Harvard, 6-3, to claim a third consecutive national title in yesterday's Potter Division finals in New Haven.

Only three weeks after narrowly beating the Crimson 5-4, the Bantams again averted an upset and were able to extend their winning streak to 52 matches.

One of yesterday's featured match pitted Harvard's Deepak Abraham against Trinity's Michael Ferreira, an English phenom who has earned the No. 1 position in a Bantam lineup loaded with international talent.

Looking to ride the coattails of Saturday's splendid upset of Princeton's David Yik, the No. 2 ranked player in the country, Abraham eventually succumbed in five games to Ferreira.

Harvard captured a much-needed victory at the No. 2 slot from junior Peter Karlen, who disposed of the nation's top-ranked player, Akhil

Behl, 3-0. Karlen's victory was his third of the season against a top-five player.

Unfortunately for Harvard, Karlen's triumph was only worth one point, and despite wins by No. 6 Andrew Merrill and No. 7 Gray Witcher, Trinity prevailed in the No. 3-5 spots and the No 8 and 9 spots.

Despite suffering its third consecutive Potter Trophy loss to Trinity, Harvard has opened many eyes throughout the collegiate squash tour. Since defeating Trinity 5-4 in the 1998 national title match, Harvard had not put up much of a fight in the final round until yesterday.

Each of the previous two seasons, the Bantams had dominated the Crimson, 8-1, in Potter Trophy play.

"Coming into this season, no one would have thought we'd have a chance," Karlen said prior to this weekend. "It's been a real professional atmosphere, and we're edging closer to some of the perennial power guys."

Prior to yesterday's duel with Trinity, Harvard had moved through the main draw in commanding fashion. All but one Crimson player swept his Dennison opponent on Friday, as Harvard welcomed its Ohio opponent to the East Coast with a 9-0 sweep.

In Saturday's 6-3 victory over Princeton, Abraham, Merrill, Witcher, James Bullock, Ziggy Whitman, and David Barry won 18 of 20 games from their counterparts in Orange and Black.

Although the disappointing loss to Trinity marked an end to an otherwise successful team component of the season, individual rivalries will be renewed this weekend at the NISRA Individual Championships here at Harvard.