January 23rd, -

Last night's match between Yale and Trinity was a quick and quite dominant win. The top two on the ladder each won 3-0, and the win was nearly secured by the first group that took the courts. The Yale women are indeed a force to be reckoned with.

"They really played well," said Yale Head Coach Dave Talbott. "I think they were really focused. They played smart and hard. I think they just overwhelmed the Trinity girls, because we are not that much better. They came out firing, and all at once."

The top three players all won, but in very different ways. Canadians Miranda Ranieri and Lauren Polonich have played each other a zillion times, and always have close matches. Last night was no exception. Though Ranieri defeated Polonich 3-0, the scoreline does not indicate how close it really was. Ranieri came back from 5-1 in the first game to eventually win 10-8. The next two games were just as intense, with Ranieri clutching the match by sending Polonich diving to the front of the court.

On the opposite side of the spectrum was Logan Greer's match against Ashley Clackson. Greer was too quick and too precise for Clackson. 

"She went out there with a game plan and stuck with it," said Yale Associate Head Coach Gareth Webber.

And it wasn't only the manner in which Greer won that surprised people.

ON PAPER ONLY
"On paper we thought we weren't as strong at two and three," Talbott said.

Greer and fellow freshman Sarah Toomey ripped that paper to shreds.

Toomey allowed only seven points in the last three games after losing the first two against Tehani Guruge. Making her win even more impressive is that only two days earlier she went to the emergency room as the result of dehydration, and was cleared to play the morning of the match.

"Toomey was amazing," Talbott said. "The girls were all so good, and all at once."

The other half of Yale's squash team did not have as much reason to celebrate following their match. Trinity continued their run, but Yale was not an easy stop along the way. In nearly every match, rallies went long, both players went running and the crowd went crazy. The packed house, with lots of Trinity representation, cheered or in certain cases did some version of booing, through point after point. Though Trinity won seven of their eight victories 3-0, some of them were very close.

Francis Johnson and Andres Vargas' first two games lasted just over an hour, until Vargas netted the win for Trinity 9-2 in the third. Yale captain Moshe Sarfaty played Trinity's Randy Lim close for four of their five games, with Lim blanking Sarfaty in the fourth.

Oddly enough, Yale's only match win was 3-0. Playing No. 8, Colin Campbell defeated Neil Robertson 10-8 in the first game, before sending the Bantam scrambling in the second and third, winning the games 9-2, 9-3.

"I think the biggest thing is we went out there to win the match, and we played that way," Talbott said. "Sometimes with Trinity, you can be like, 'Oh, I just will go play well.' We got beaten by a little more skill. We played them competitively, and the guys went out there to win it, so they were disappointed afterward."

Assaiante acknowledged Yale gave his team a run last night.

"They were right there," he said of the Yale men. "They gave us everything they had and we were lucky to get out of there with a win."

Trinity has earned the respect they have for a reason though, and while their match against Yale showed that they are not invincible, it was further confirmation that they deserve that respect. Princeton would be wise to follow the mentality the Yale men stepped on court with when they face the Bantams next week.

FIRST TIME VIEWER
This was my first ever spectator experience at a collegiate squash match. Let me tell you, my nerves have been bad for a week. Then today when I saw the Trinity men walking up the stairs in Yale's Brady Squash Center, I was intimidated. When I saw the super fit Yale women doing their stretching and other warm ups with rap music playing in the background, I was a little concerned. And I was not even scheduled to step foot on court. It was simply my first time watching an intercollegiate match in person.

So much action. So much adrenaline.

I could feel it as I walked around watching the players warm up. There were also moments that reminded me that these are college students and college students are fun people. First example,a Trinity player and a Yale player hugging when they ran into each other, accompanied by classic girlish screams. Then, when I saw a photo of Dave Talbott's brother Mark with Trinity head coach Paul Assaiante hanging in Dave's office, I was reminded that even some of the most successful coaches in college squash truly are the people they teach their players to be off court.

When match time came though, after a boisterous intro in front of a packed crowd, I learned how intense these athletes are. I learned a scoreline never tells close to the entire story. Even a seemingly one sided match has incredible moments, such as when Yale No. 1 Miranda Ranieri won match point against a head first diving Lauren Polonich. Today you get the scores; tomorrow, you get the full experience in a more detailed article.

DARTMOUTH SQUEAKS BY
Meanwhile at Williams, Dartmouth used superior depth to defeat the Williams women 5-4 at Williamstown.

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