Racquetmen Beat Elis And Stay Champions

The mental anguish that haunted the varsity squashmen following their defeat at Penn two weeks ago was forgotten Saturday as Harvard captured its second straight national championship with a 9-0 victory over Yale.

Saturday's victory was doubly sweet for Coach Jack Barnaby. Not only did his racquetmen tie or better Penn's record against common opponents in every match, but for the first time in history the Crimson shut out the Elis.

Barnaby, wary of the fact that his three toughest matches--Navy, Penn, and Princeton--were all away, had insisted on using a different type ball from the one Harvard had to use against Navy the day beforehand, when Peter Abrams' chronic back ailments sidelined him the day before the big match. These factors, coupled with the fact that Penn had one of its most powerful squads in years, resulted in Harvard's first loss to the Quakers.

Penn, having lost to Williams earlier in the year, was then tied with Harvard, one loss each, and could only hope that in Harvard's two remaining matches, Harvard would falter and lose its five point individual advantage in matches against common opponents.

After duplicating Penn's 6-3 record over Princeton, the Crimson had only to take five matches from Yale last Saturday.

Instead the Crimson trounced the Elis, losing only four games in the entire match. At number one, Anil Nayer was temporarily stunned by Yale's Ed Bartlett's scrambling style, but he settled down to a comfortable, 3-1, victory. Terrell and Fritz Hobbes, at two and three, overpowered their opponents, 3-0.

At number four, Michel Schienmann concluded his career with a sensational comeback victory 11-15, 15-11, 9-15, 16-13, 15-6. Fernando Gonzales and John Ince at five and six, both won easily, 3-0.

Five players concluded the season with undefeated records: Nayer, Terrell, Hobbes, Atwood, and Abrams.

With the nine-man team championship won, the team of Nayer and Terrell, Hobbes and Gonzales will travel to Yale next weekend to try to bring back Harvard's third consecutive four-man title.