Racquetmen Swat Orange And Black

Despite unusually cool courts and a raucous Tiger crowd, the Harvard men's squash team downed Princeton, 6-3, at Jadwin Gym on Saturday.

"The match didn't come out as I had expected," Crimson Coach Steve Piltch said. "I thought it would be 5-4 either way."

But it didn't turn out that way, because Princeton, historically the league's second-winningest team (nine Ivy championships) started out strong but faltered in the match's final hour.

Harvard suffered some hard losses in the early going. Second-seeded Marty Clark fell flat to Princeton's Bob White. Clark's strategy--to exhaust White with long, strong rallies--backfired. White capitalized on White's errors and took the first victory of the day.

The Orange and Black's Nick Guethe reeled in another catch for the Tigers. He came back from a two-game deficit to defeat Crimson freshman Farokh Pandole in five games. Pandole started out on five with a sharp backhand and a beauty of a return roll-corner. But, the same sure-fire shots from the first two games turned into inaccurate ones for the final three.

The domino effect continued as Tigers Alex Marx bumped off third-seeded junior and Co-Captain Johnny Kaye.

It took an early Neal Tew victory to turn the match around, allowing the Crimson to roll off six straight wins. Tew used fast feet and formidable rails to beat Princeton freshman Eddie Fishman.

"Tew played the best game of the match," Piltch said.

Once Tew broke the losing chain, the Crimson unleashed a torrent of wins. Harvard senior George Polsky rallied to a 3-2 win, and Jon Karlen took four games to defeat Princeton sophomore Chuck Goodwin.

Harvard freshman Adrien Ezra, India's national softball champion, shook up Princeton's Alex Cristiani in five-games to put the Crimson ahead for good, 4-3.

Top-seeded Jeremy Fraiberg overcame taunting "Je-ee-er-emy" catcalls from the gallery to down Canadian archrival Chris Stevens in four games. Fraiberg lost the opening game, 10-15, after refusing Stevens a let. After a heated argument on the court, Fraiberg recovered to sweep three straight.

The joke, ultimately, was on Princeton. Fraiberg's win cemented Harvard's victory in the match. Jim Masland defeated Princeton's flam-boyant junior Ron Rubin to provide the final count, 6-3.

The men now have two weeks to prepare for their showdown against Yale that will determine the Ivy title.