Squash Team Stuns Tigers

Princeton's squash team had long been awaiting the moment Saturday when it would avenge last year's ridiculous 5-4 loss at Harvard.

The Tigers were not even going to let the match get close this time, and broke to a quick 4-1 lead. The only Crimson victory had been at number four, where Dinny Adams topped John Frazier, 15-9, 15-10, 17-16. As soon as Bert Gay won a third game from Harvard's Bill Morris, it would all be over.

That game never came for Princeton. Morris won 11 of the last 13 points to take the third game, 15-9. The fourth game, however, was the crucial one. The scrappy Gay slowly pulled away until he had a commanding 12-7 lead. Morris, starting to concentrate on power strokes, fought back to 12-11. Gay won the next point on a corner drop, but his opponent could not be stopped now. A blazing crosscourt backhand and a volley down the line made the score 13-13. Five straight points by Morris then gave him the game, 13-13.

Morris gained a small lead in the fifth and final game, and never relinquished it. Mixing power with consistently accurate drop shots, he took it, 15-11.

While the number five contest was being decided, Harvard's third and seventh players were on the way to straight-game victories.

Terry Robinson's precise shotmaking was too much for Princeton's Jim Lemons, who succumbed 15-11, 15-10, 15-11. The number seven rivals, Todd Wilkinson and Nick Kourides, had both won all their previous matches by 3-0 scores. Only Harvard's Wilkinson could repeat it this time, 15-10, 15-11, 15-7.

With the score tied at 4-4, the deciding number one match was in progress. Harvard captain Romer Holleran won the first game, 15-11, but fell behind 13-6 in the second. Holleran steadied, and left opponent Frank Satterthwaite at the short end of a 15-14 game.

Again Holleran came back to capture the third and final game, 18-15. Harvard had won, 5-4.

Princeton was not without its own high moments. Tiger captain Peter Svastich stopped Al Terrell, 15-12, 12-15, 15-12, 15-5; tennis star Keith Jennings blitzed Harvard's Dave Benjamin, 15-6, 15-6, 15-9.

Princeton's bottom two players won with surprising case also. Walt Smedley blanked Steve Simpson, Harvard's hero against Penn, 15-6, 15-7, 15-8; and Tom Gilbert whipped sophomore Craig Stapleton, 15-5, 15-13, 15-3.

There was only one very close match for the whole day, and it was Harvard's Morris who came out on top. Coach Jack Barnaby called Morris' comeback "One of the greatest exhibitions of squash play I've ever seen." That's quite a compliment, coming from a veteran coach of 25 years.

This was the year of strength at Princeton. This was the year to beat Harvard. That year did not come, thanks to Bill Morris.