Columbia Men, USA Women Reach Finals
July 3, 2004, By Rob Dinerman; SquashTalk Independent News Service © 2004

Columbia Gets Inspired Win over US, Samper beats Quick

[men's draw] [women's draw]

Large Crowds take in Pan Am action at Tepic, photo courtesy FPS © 2004

** Partial report - stand by for complete report **

The Columbian men, playing with inspirationa and precision, dominated the the United States to seal an historical day and to obtain one of the final berths in the 2004 Pan Am Cup in Tepic Mexico.

The Columbian men took revenge the defeat of the Columbian women's team. Only two matches were necessary to secure the match and the dead rubber was not played by mutual agreement.

Santiago Montoya recovered from his defeat in the individuals against Chris Gordon and added the first point with a straightforward 3-0, 9-5,9-2 and 9-2 win in front of a partisan crowd. Then the attention turned to position #1. Bernardo Samper, Trinity #1 player, opposed Preston Quick, former Trinity squad player.

The Colombian was inspired, exhibited patience, moved his rival, controlled the play, showed great deception, and always ended the points with the right balls, cross against the flow of plays and perfect drives gave him a 9-5, 9-3 and 9-1 win. With the result of 2 games to 0, already the dead rubber was not played and Colombia celebrated its passage to the finals.

On the ladies side, The United States, conquered Columbia with a great demonstration of speed, accurate and precise concentration by its three players, who managed to accumulate the 3 games in dominating fashion. The youth of the Columbian team, was neutralized by the greater experience of the American players, who demonstrated that they are the team with greatest potential to gain the Pan-American gold medal.

The first match saw Lily Lorenzen (USA) defeat Mariana de Reyes 3-0 (9-0,9-5,9-0). Next up, at the #1 position, Isabel Restrepo put up a good fight before falling to Michel Quibell 3-1 (8-10,9-5, 9-4 and 9-4), in a game in which the Columbian player, although threatening the possibility of a victory, was unable to consolidate the advantage when she tired. The final match, the dead rubber, was played out to two of three games and Silvia Angulo fell to Louisa Hall, who managed rapid recovery from her ankle injury, triumphing 2-1 (8-9, 9-3 and 9-7).

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