Sunday, February 25, 2001

TRINITY MEN’S SQUASH WINS THIRD STRAIGHT

New Haven, Conn.- Freshman Michael Ferriera (Stamford, England) won the deciding match, 3-2, at the No. 1 position to lead the Trinity College Bantams to a 6-3 win over the Harvard University Crimson in the National Intercollegiate Squash Racquets Association (NISRA) Team Championship (Potter Trophy) Finals this afternoon at Yale University.

Trinity, which captures its third consecutive NISRA Team Championship title, finishes the season with a perfect 17-0 record and stretches its consecutive -match winning streak to 52 dating back to the 1998 NISRA Finals. The Bantams, coached by Paul Assaiante, were the top seed in the tournament and have been ranked No. 1 in the nation for the entire season.

Trinity had beaten Cornell and Yale, both by a score of 9-0, in the quarterfinals and semifinal rounds on Friday and Saturday, respectively. Harvard’s quarterfinal victory was a 9-0 triumph over Denison and its semifinal win by a 6-3 score, over Princeton. Harvard was seeded No. 2 in the tournament and ranked No. 2 in the nation all season. Trinity had beaten Harvard, 5-4, on the road during the regular season.

Trinity juniors Lefike Ragontse (Gaborang, Botswana) and Rohan Bhappu (Bombay, India) won the first two matches for the Bantams, 3-1, and 3-0, respectively, at No. 4 and No. 8. However, Harvard No. 2 Peter Karlen (Woodstock, Conn.) and No. 6 Andrew Merrill (Short Hills, N.J.) matched Ragontse and Bhappu with early victories to make the score 2-2 after the first round of matches.

Bantam sophomore No. 5 Nickolas Kyme (Pembroke, Bermuda) and freshman No. 9 Pat Malloy (Boston, Mass.) came through with 3-0 victories to give Trinity a 4-2 lead as the No. 1 match between Ferriera and Harvard’s Deepak Abraham (Plymouth, England) was in progress.

Ferriera and Abraham twice alternated game victories to bring the match score to 2-2. Ferriera led in the fifth and deciding game, 12-9, and beat Abraham on three consecutive shots to win the game, 15-9. With the 3-2 victory, Trinity had won five of the first seven matches to clinch the title.

Trinity sophomore No. 3 Jonathan Smith (Leeds, England) and Harvard No. 7 Grayson Witcher (Calgary, Alberta) posted wins to account for the final score of 6-3.

In its 9-0 semifinal win over No. 4-seeded Yale, seven out of nine Trinity players won their matches by a score of 3-0, including senior Akhil Behl (Bombay, India) at No. 2, Smith, Kyme, junior Rohan Juneja (Bombay, India), senior co-captain Loua Coetze (Port Alfred, South Africa), and Bhappu.

MATCH RESULTS

Trinity v. Yale

1. TC- Michael Ferriera d. Anshul Manchanda 3-1

2. TC- Akhil Behl d. Peter Grote                        3-0

3. TC- Jonathan Smith d. Chris Olson        3-0

4. TC- Lefike Ragontse d. Aftab Mathur        3-1

5. TC- Nickolas Kyme d. Blake Gilpin       3-0

6. TC- Rohan Juneja d. Ryan Byrnes               3-0

7. TC- Loua Coetzee d. A. J. McCrery       3-0

8. TC- Gaurav Juneja d. Josh Barenbaum       3-1

9. TC- Rohan Bhappu d. Frank Bouchardy       3-0

Trinity (Conn.) 9 Yale 0

Trinity v. Harvard

1. TC- Michael Ferriera d. Deepak Abraham 3-2

2. H- Peter Karlen d. Akhil Behl                         3-0

3. TC- Jonathan Smith d. Shondip Ghosh         3-1

4. TC- Lefike Ragontse d. James Bullock         3-1

5. TC- Nickolas Kyme d. Dylan Patterson         3-0

6. H- Andrew Merrill d. Rohan Juneja                 3-1

7. H- Grayson Witcher d. Loua Coetzee          3-2

8. TC- Rohan Bhappu d. Issac Whitman         3-0

9. TC- Patrick Malloy d. David Barry                 3-0

Trinity (Conn.) 6 Harvard 3