Five Racquetmen Shock Tigers

Despite the injury and consequent loss of its second best player, the Harvard men's squash team turned in a stunning performance to win the intercollegiate six-man team championship at Penn over the past weekend.

The championship is arranged into three individual single elimination tournaments. The top two players from each team compete in the A flight tournament, with the third and fourth players in the B flight, and the fifth and sixth players in the C flight.

Team scores are counted from the number of matches that are won in each flight. Each individual win is worth two points towards the team score.

What made Harvard's win so remarkable was that Russ Ball, Harvard's number two player, turned an ankle before playing in his first match. So without playing a single match, Harvard had lost a potential sixth of its team points.

However, the team was not discouraged.

"There was not a lot of disappointment," Coach Dave Fish said. "All year long we've wanted a chance to prove ourselves. It was a great handicap, but we had everything to shoot for. The attitude of everyone was great."

The players did realize that Ball would have contributed his share of points for the team.

Princeton was one team which fully appreciated the significance of the loss of Ball.

The Tigers were expected to be collegiate squash's top team this year. However, a 7-2 dual meet loss to the Crimson on February 8 ended their hopes for the nine-man national title. "This was supposed to be [Princeton's] year," said Co-Captain Dave Segal.

Facing both the loss of Ball and the ominous presence of a vengeful Princeton squad, the Crimson was able to prevail.

In the final tally, Harvard had scored 62 points, while Princeton had managed only 60.

After the match, Princeton Captain Christian Griffen approached the celebrating Crimson only to say, "You guys are amazing," and then walked away.

Leading the way for the racquetmen, as usual, was Co-Captain Kenton Jernigan, one of the Harvard's most accomplished athletes. Jernigan concluded his college career by rolling over Penn's Stewart Ballard by a score of three games to none to take his third individual intercollegiate championship in four years.

Darius Pandole, the Crimson's number three player, defeated Princeton's Tom Shephard by a 3-1 score to claim the B flight championship.

Kevin Jernigan, the Crimson's number five player, lost an exciting 3-2 match in the finals of the C flight tournament to Keen Butcher of Princeton.

Joe Dowling and Will Iselin also made critical contributions.