New Haven, CT — Day 2 of the 2010 Men’s National Team Championships delivered upsets, thrilling matches, and great squash.
It was standing room only in the Brady Squash Center when Trinity and Princeton hit the courts at noon. Princeton led after the first round of matches, with wins from Chris Callis at 3 and David Pena at 6. Princeton’s Santiago Imberton and Peter Sopher both took their matches to 5 games, but Trinity didn’t give up another match. The Bantams secured their place in the Potter Cup final with a 7-2 win.
The other A Division semifinal came down to the wire. Yale and Rochester entered the third round of matches tied 3-3. After Yale’s Richard Dodd won 3-0 at number 7, Rochester needed wins at 1 and 4 to take the match. Things seemed to be going the Yellowjackets’ way when number 4 Andres Duany won his first game against Hywel Robinson 11-9. With the Yale fans cheering him on, Robinson came back to win three games in a row, capturing a place for Yale in the final. Rochester’s Beni Fischer and Yale’s Kenneth Chan battled it out at number 1, with Fischer hanging on to win in five: 10-12, 11-9, 5-11, 11-9, 14-12. Fischer and Chan put on an impressive show for the crowd packing the stands around court 1, but Yale was already through to the finals.
The Bulldogs will play Trinity for the national title at 3 pm Sunday.
Play in the B Division was as close as promised. Top seeds Penn and Williams will meet in the Hoehn Cup final tomorrow at noon. Their opponents, Bates and F&M, both played hard and didn’t make it easy for the Quakers and the Ephs. Bates and F&M will play for 11th place at Choate tomorrow. In the consolation bracket, Navy defeated St. Lawrence 6-3, and Bowdoin upset Brown.
In the C Division, Amherst secured a place in the finals with a 5-4 win over a game Tufts squad. Connecticut College defeated Wesleyan 5-4 to make it into the D Division finals. Scores from the other C and D matches had not been reported as of 9:15 pm Saturday.
Cal upset Columbia 6-3 in the E Division semifinals. The Bears will face Kenyon, who breezed past Washington 8-1, in the Chaffee Cup finals. Haverford and BC both made it into the consolation finals with 5-4 wins.
Boston University and Vanderbilt will play for the Serues Cup, while Illinois-Champaign and Swarthmore will compete in the F Division consolation finals. Illinois won by the largest margin in the division, defeating USC 7-2. Swarthmore, who had to default their Friday match because of a travel delay, had a more satisfying day with a 5-4 win over Purdue today.
Lafayette will attempt to defend their 2009 G Division title as they take on Bryant in the Hawthorn Cup final tomorrow at 3:00 pm at Yale. To make it to the final, Lafayette defeated Fordham 5-4 in the first round and upset top-seeded Vermont by the same score in the semifinals. Bryant had two upsets of their own, over Bucknell in the first round and Bard in the second. Fordham and Bucknell will play for 53rd place in the consolation finals.
Tulane will have some additional carry-ons when they fly home to New Orleans tomorrow: the Green Wave locked up the Emerging Teams title when they finished their matches late this afternoon. Round robin play will continue for the other Emerging Teams tomorrow.
