Desaulniers Roars But Racquetmen Eaten Alive, 8-1

Describing the men's squash match with Princeton on Saturday afternoon as anything but anticlimactic would be like saying Mike Desaulniers doesn't know his way around a squash court. Except for top man Desaulniers' brilliant play, the contest--and with it the rights to the national championship--belonged to the Tigers as they devoured the Crimson, 8-1, in front of a large partisan crowd at Hemenway Gym.

Harvard and Princeton stand head and shoulders above all the other squash teams in the country--thus, Saturday's clash, for all intents and purposes, decided the 1978 national winner.

The odd-numbered seeds took to the courts first and the overflowing crowd, many who had been there for over an hour, settled down to watch the long awaited showdown between the two best college racquetmen in the country, the Crimson's Mike Desaulniers and Tom Page of Princeton.

The duel may not have been as close as expected but Desaulniers' awesome mastery of all aspects of the game more than made up for what the match lacked in excitement.

Taking charge of the middle, Desaulniers kept Page scrambling and turned the vaunted meeting of these undefeated college players into a blowout. Desaulniers breezed to a 15-6, 15-12, 15-5 victory to become the undisputed king of college squash.

But Desaulniers' match was to be the only bright spot for the Crimson team on this day. As Desaulniers and Page concluded their battle, Mitch Reese's loss to Tiger Andy Frost, 3-0 at the seventh position was already history. In rapid succession the results of the fifth and ninth slots appeared on the scoreboard and Harvard fell behind, 3-1.

The Crimson's John Stubbs lost a razor-close three-game match to Peter Thompson, 11-15, 14-16, and 14-16. Clark Bain also succumbed in three straight, losing to Andy MacDonald, 11-15, 12-15, and 12-15.

Ned Bacon and John Havens--playing on a badly injured knee--the number three and number two men for the Crimson, respectively, struggled to grab one game apiece before dropping 3-1 matches. When their opponents Gary Fogler and Frank Brosens walked off the courts victorious Princeton had clinched the match.

Chuck Elliott and Tiger John Nimick fought evenly at the eighth slot for all five games, with the entire match coming down to the last point. Elliott reached 14 first and chose a one-point tiebreaker. "I chose one point because he is a freshman and I figured that I have more experience," Elliott said. "I had a chance to win the point but I tinned it," he added.

Clancy Nixon and captain Mark Panarese lost, 3-1, to Thor Kayeum and Bill Fisher, respectively.

Harvard coach Dave Fish cited Princeton's incredible depth for their success, describing them as "amazing." "We didn't play badly," Fish said, "they just played very well."

"What can you say? They beat us soundly," Reese said.

Princeton's coach Dave Benjamin admitted that he was "less miserable than usual." More seriously, he added, "We wanted to prove that we could win away from home to show to ourselves and everyone else that we were really number one." Anyone in Hemenway on Saturday was convinced.