USSRA Mens Squash Team Try outs 2002

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By Rob Dinerman © 2002 SquashTalk

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DWalker, McNeely and River Win In Closing Day of U. S. Team Trials

On what will most be remembered as the day Sarah Fitz-Gerald became statistically the greatest Australian woman player in history (by winning her 58th career WISPA title, eclipsing Michelle Martin's total of 57), the British-born American Damian Walker reached a milestone of his own by winning his 50th (and 5lst and 52nd) consecutive game in Americans-only tournaments in his convincing 9-6, 7 and 6 victory over Preston Quick in their match to determine first and second place in the four-day U. S. Team Trials, which concluded this morning. This replay of last March's S. L. Green final was preceded by Beau River's 9-2, 4 and 2 victory over Jason Jewell in the 5th-6th play-off and Dave McNeely's exciting four-game win over Richard Chin for third and fourth place.

The original plan was to have eight players compete in a straight draw, but when Tim Wyant became sidelined by a lingering groin injury and Steve Polli decided to pull out, Coach Paul Assaiante decided to conduct two three-man round-robin pools from Thursday through Saturday, with the respective Nos. 1 ,2 and 3 finishers then playing each other for final placement. This trials score would count for 40% of a player's overall quotient, with the 2001-2002 season ranking accounting for another 40% and the S. L. Green ranking worth the final 20%. Only four players would qualify for the team that will represent America in the upcoming Pan American Federation event in Quito, Ecuador in late August.

By the time the pool portion of these trials had ended Saturday evening, the team composition had already been determined, which meant that Sunday's matches would not affect who did make the team and who didn't. In fact, the entire weekend had a kind of pre-ordained feel to it, which was reflected in the matches themselves, all nine of which went the three-game minimum save Sunday morning's second match between '99 S. L. Green winner McNeely and three-time ('94, '97, '01) S. L. Green finalist Chin.

The latter's win in the fourth game of the 2001 Green final with Walker had been the last that Walker had dropped in the past 15-plus months, during which he had stroked his way through last summer's team trials and this past season's Trinity Open, Westchester Classic and S. L. Green and this weekend's pool round-robin, 16 matches in all, without dropping a single game, 49 games in all counting the fifth game with Chin in Seattle in the 2001 S. L. Green final, which he had run off with by a score of 9-2.

Quick's recent hot streak, which had seen him win last weekend's U. S. Pro event in Los Angeles and rout both McNeely and River on Thursday and Friday nights, made some observers feel that he might be ready to challenge Walker, who had seemed a little lethargic in his pool wins over Chin (who had a game-ball in the second and lost the first and third games 9-7) and Jewell. But Quick's aggressive volleying tactics, which had discombobulated both of his pool victims, were ricocheting into mid-court and leaving Walker with an open ball and too many options, a deadly combination with a strategist and shotmaker of his caliber, and he made Quick pay enough to always remain in control.

River and Jewell had both been eliminated from contention by the time they took the court, but both were hungry to come away from the weekend with at least one match win. River's backhand working boast, a staple of his game which he had hit poorly throughout his one-sided loss to McNeely less than 24 hours earlier, was much better angles and more effective in this 5th-6th match and he was much less tin-prone as well.

Jewell's game was out of sync all weekend, his movement frenetic, his shot selection impetuous and his execution below his normal standard, which has been good enough to enable him to make the Pan Am Fed squad that competed in Brazil two years ago. He was briefly out of the game and his recent relocation to Santa Barbara has left him without ready access to the kind of sparring partners that are so plentiful in the New York (where Jewell used to live) and Greenwich areas, where Walker, McNeely, Chin all are currently based. He is still young enough and talented enough to make another run at the top level, as is River, who is recently recovered from several leg injuries and who plans to spend this autumn training in England under the expert eye of British national team coach Dave Pearson.

As noted, the McNeely-Chin match was easily the longest (100 minutes), closest and best match of the entire weekend, and the only one to extend to a fourth game, though that only happened because Chin was able to win the third in a 10-8 tiebreaker after he saw a 6-2 first-game advantage metamorphose into a deflating 9-6 defeat and lost the second 9-7 as well. The match was characterized by (obviously) close games and long all-court points and much of the action occurred along the left wall, where both contestants are most comfortable and proficient. There was plenty of shooting as well, which was rewarded by the cool and solid court conditions of the private court of Richard Fuld, CEO of Lehman Brothers, the primary sponsor of the American team, where the entire trials were held.

By the last point of the fourth and final game, McNeely's third match-ball of the game, which he won on a backhand crosscourt which he hit too wide for an outstretched Chin to forehand volley back into play, both players had exhausted themselves while richly deserving the team spots that their pre-Sunday efforts had already earned them. It is to their credit that notwithstanding this fact they played so hard and so well, and there is no doubt that it is a formidable squad that Coach Assaiante will take to Ecuador this August, where the first major step will be taken to restoring America's reputation in the world squash community after the disappointing 19th-place finish at last year's World Team Championships in Australia.

Final Sunday Results
(1st/2nd) Damian Walker d Preston Quick 9-6 9-7 9-6
(3rd/4th) Dave McNeely d Richard Chin 9-6 9-7 8-10 9-7
(5th/6th) Beau River d Jason Jewell 9-2 9-4 9-2

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