M. Squash Falls To Princeton, 5-4

With the regular season national championship wrapped up, the Harvard men's squash team travelled to Princeton last weekend to compete in the Intercollegiate Team Championships, the post-season national championship tournament.

And, well, Harvard found that a regular-season championship does not a post-season championship make.

Crippled by the loss of junior Jon Karlen, the team's third-best player, Harvard lost to Princeton in the finals of the ITCs, 5-4.

With the loss went Harvard's chances of recognition as the undisputed national champion.

The Crimson can now only claim the regular-season crown, while the Tigers--which Harvard defeated in February with Karlen in the lineup, 6-3--can rightfully claim to be co-champions.

"It would nave been nice to remove the ambiguity," Harvard Coach Bill Doyle said. "But we consider what happens over the five months of the regular season more important."

Karlen has been out since January with a chronic hip injury. Against Princeton in February, Karlen took the court but had to default in midgame when he could no longer walk, according to Doyle.

A grand total of 42 teams were invited to the tournament, broken down into five divisions by regular season rankings. Teams then played in a single-elimination bracket to determine the winner.

Bumped

With Karlen on the sidelines Doyle was forced to bump each of his players up a spot on the team. So instead of Harvard's third-best player playing the opponent's third-best player, it was fourth-best against third-best.

Princeton ripped into this opening, and the Crimson lost its matches at the third, fourth and fifth positions. Both Co-Captain Neal Tew (playing fifth) and senior Josh Horwitz (playing third) each won their previous match against the Tigers but lost to the stiffer competition.

"The primary difference between this match and the earlier one was Jon Karlen," Tew said. "Without him, everybody had to play a tougher opponent than before."

The top-ranked duo of Co-Captain Marty Clark and junior Adrian Ezra both won (Clark 3-1 and Ezra 3-0), as did freshmen Ted Bruenner (3-2 at the sixth position) and Yale match hero Michael Oh, who rebounded from a 2-0 game deficit to win his fifth game, 18-16.

Freshmen Tal Ben-Scacher lost at the fifth position, 3-1, as did junior David White (3-0 playing eighth) and sophomore Mike Masland (3-1 in the ninth spot).

White--then playing ninth--had also defeated the Tigers in February.

"It was so close, it was very disappointing," Tew said. "We would have liked to have both [the regular-season and tournament] titles."

Early Rounds

Harvard defeated Williams, 9-0, in the first round of play and eventual third-place finisher Western Ontario, 5-4, in the semifinals.

The match was played in front of the Tigers' home crowd, which Doyle said might have been a small factor.

"The crowd certainly didn't hurt us, but it might have helped Princeton," Doyle said.

THE NOTEBOOK: The Harvard men's and women's squash teams compete this weekend in the national individual championships, to be held at Trinity for the women and at Navy for the men. Clark and Ezra are expected to be the top two seeds of the men's side.