MSRA A League Squash Finals 2002

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Harvard Club wins MSRA "A"

by Rob Dinerman

Ezra Leads Harvard Club To MSRA A

HARVARD CLUB WINS MEN'S LOSES WOMEN'S 2002 CROWNS
Displaying the skill and determination that had enabled all three team members to play major roles on Harvard championship squads during their widely spaced undergraduate careers, Daniel Ezra '98, George Polsky '92 and Jay Nelson '62 each won demanding matches over their Yale Club counterparts to win the championship round of the 2001-2002 New York Metropolitan Squash Racquets Association (MSRA) play-offs, three matches to zero.

They thereby brought to their hallowed West 44th Street establishment the league crown that their counterpart Women's A team had failed to deliver three nights earlier in their final-round 2-1 loss to the Uptown Racquet Club.

The Men's final was also played on enemy turf, and against alumni of their arch-rival institution to boot, but the similarity between these two team finals pretty much ended right there. The Harvard Club contingent, several of whose members had under-performed at various times during the 14-match regular season, entered the play-offs in high gear, and not even the considerable three-week gap between their 3-0 semi-final win against an over-matched Lincoln Club team and last night's final could undo their momentum.

The Yale Club, by contrast, had struggled in its semi-final against the University Club, which got a win out of Ben Elias (who didn't lose a match all season) over Peter Withstandley at No. 2, but wound up on the short end of a 2-1 score when Sanjay Nayar couldn't take advantage of a two games to one lead over Alex Luchars at No. 3 and Ryan O'Connell was thrashed by the Yale Club's John Musto in the deciding match at No. 1. The latter's comeback season was highlighted by a seventh-place finish at last month's S. L. Green championships, which for the first time were hosted by Yale, and by a straight-set victory over Ezra in their regular-season meeting, which Harvard had won, two matches to one, on the strength of Polsky's four-game win over Yale Club's Withstandley and Nelson's rally from an 0-2 deficit to a five-game win over Nick Lukens.

There had been some arguing and even shouting in that latter match, resulting in some bad blood between the two teams and a cancellation of a scheduled "social" match-and-dinner the following week, but happily there was no carryover from that mid-February evening, as all three of the final-round matches were well officiated and rancor-free.

NELSON WORKS THE COURT ON LUCHARS

Notwithstanding the foregoing, the matches were plenty competitive, beginning with the No. 3 match between Nelson and Luchars, both of whom had successfully rallied from imposing deficits in the semi-final round. (see semi finals report) Nelson seems to thrive in the atmosphere of a big match like this league final, which had about 60 spectators in attendance, and his mid-court working boasts on both flanks worked increasingly in his favor as their four-game match wore on.

Luchars missed much of the regular season with a calf injury, which sidelined him for most of the autumn, and lower back problems which cropped up later on. Both his confidence and his conditioning were understandably affected by these maladies, and the draining effect of the court conditions, which were much hotter than usual due to a record-breaking heat wave that swept Manhattan in mid-April, took a toll as well.

So did Nelson's control of the court and ability to force Luchars to do most of the retrieving, all of which enabled the decorated Crimson torch-bearer to rebound from a 9-5 first-game loss and grind his way inexorably through a wearing but convincing 80-minute 5-9, 9-6, 9-4, and 9-3 victory over his increasingly exhausted opponent. This outcome affected the dynamics of the entire evening in a significant way. Polsky went undefeated all season in the No. 2 slot, including a fairly dominant four-game win over tonight's opponent Withstanley and a three-game win in the semis over Lincoln's Dave Steere.

POLSKY REPEATS REGULAR SEASON WIN
The Yale Club's only realistic chance of taking the title therefore seemed to require it to get a win at No. 3 and hope that Musto could repeat his prior victory over Ezra, who was known to have been sufficiently chastened by his sub-par showing that night to have stepped up his preparation for this rematch. Harvard's win at No. 3 upset this configuration and put Polsky in a position to seal the team outcome himself. To Withstandley's credit, he played much better than he had either in his semis loss to the University Club's Elias or in his prior match with Polsky, during the last two games of which he doomed his chances by tinning incessantly, especially in the fourth and final game.

This time he stayed above the tin and hung in there against his more experienced opponent, who represented the U. S. in the Maccabean Games several years ago and who has earned a well-deserved reputation for rarely losing a match he is favored to win. There are limitations to Polsky's solid game, which have kept him from ever having a big tournament above a certain level, but he never beats himself and was in control of most of the action throughout his competitive though three-game victory. Many points ended with Polsky getting front-court position and an open ball, feinting a short shot and instead hitting forehand length winners on both his rail and crosscourt.

Former Penn Captain Withstandley's best chance came in the second, when he stayed within a point or two of Polsky right throughout, but when Polsky closed out that game 9-7 with another forehand rail winner that caught Withstandley leaning the wrong way, the outcome became inevitable: 9-4, 7 and 2 for Polsky and a clinching of the team match for the Harvard Club. Though the concluding heavyweight match at No. 1 thus had no bearing on the team outcome, both Musto and Ezra were eager for their rematch.

MUSTO FADES AGAINST EZRA

Musto had led Yale to the 1990 Intercollegiate title, Yale's first since 1961, winning the deciding match from two games to one down against Mark Baker, while Ezra's Harvard teams had gone undefeated throughout his sparkling college career, which he had culminated by winning the Individual Intercollegiate crown his senior year. He had also won the Gold Racquets Invitational at the Rockaway Hunting Club in Long Island early this past December, throughout which he had displayed the natural athleticism and racquet skill that had caused his Harvard coach Bill Doyle to label him "the most talented player I ever coached" during the latter's title-filled seven-year coaching career from 1993-99.

Musto was able to grab early leads in both of the first two games, but an Ezra spurt took him to a 9-6 win in the first and enabled him to catch Musto at 8-all in the second. Ezra was controlling much of the play and forcing Musto to do most of the retrieving, but when Ezra first tinned a drop shot and then drove a rail right back at himself for a game-ending "stroke" call, it appeared that Musto might still win the match. He had gone undefeated for the entire league season at No. 1, and his recent tournament showings at the S. L. Green and Westchester Classic events had brought him to the top 10 of the U. S. rankings, a remarkable showing, especially in view of the 33rd birthday he had celebrated late last fall and of the four-year hiatus he had taken from tournament play after the 1996-97 season before returning to the fray this past autumn.

But Musto had lost some of his edge during the month-long gap since the S. L. Green, and neither his wind nor his legs were quite as primed as they would have had to have been for him to keep the pressure on a player of Ezra's caliber, and the Harvard star was galvanized by the memory of his two-month-old defeat. He upped the pace in the final two games, alternating his soft drop shot with drives and unvolleyable lobs and several times smashing head-high forehand crosscourt volleys perfectly into the nick, where they rolled unplayably out. Musto retrieved as wholeheartedly as ever in spite of his growing fatigue, but Ezra's superior firepower carried the day and the match (as well as the MSRA A League season) ended meekly with his 9-6, 8-10, 9-4, 9-3 triumph.

GENERAL LEAGUE REVIVAL

Harvard Club of New York

A deserved championship for a Harvard squad that hit their stride at exactly the right time, but an excellent season as well for the Yale Club, which came closer than any of its teams since its last championship run in 1992-93, when the Elis capped off the last league season of MSRA hardball by winning their seventh title in the 11-year period from 1983-93. There was such a revival of interest at the venerable clubhouse on Vanderbilt Avenue that well-attended Saturday morning practices and try-outs took place all through the fall and two teams were entered in the A League. The league itself seemed greatly revived after several recent desultory years, and it will be interesting to see if this momentum can be sustained next season and in years to come.

FINALS OF THE MSRA (New York) A LEAGUE
(Harvard Club d. Yale Club, 3-0)
1. Daniel Ezra (H) d John Musto (Y) 9-6, 8-10, 9-4, 9-3
2. George Polsky (H) d Peter Withstanley (Y) 9-4, 9-7, 9-2
3. Jay Nelson (H) d Alex Luchars (Y) 5-9, 9-6, 9-4, 9-3

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