John Nimick, Pro Squash Promoter, interviewed by Martin Bronstein

[Draw/Results] [Potter Fri] [Hoehn Fri] [Summers Fri] [Conroy Fri] [Chaffee Fri]

Going into this weeks biggest-ever CSA Men's Team Championships at Princeton, a lot of people were talking about University of Rochester's chances. Specifically about how they would fare this afternoon against Yale.

Bennie Fischer (at #2) gave Rochester a key point

Today, Rochester exorcized the demons. "This was a great win for the guys," Martin Heath said, "we've suffered so many close 5-4 losses this season, that it was so very important to them."

The match stood 4-3 in favor of Yale, on the strength of Yale wins over Rochester at positions six through nine.

On court, side by side, were the crucial number one and four matches. At the one position, Jim Bristow of Rochester was heavily favored over John Fulham, a Yale sophomore who had been newly promoted to number one. At the number four position, Rochester freshman Matt Domenick was pitted against Yale senior — and experienced battler — Aaron Fuchs.

All eyes were on Domenick and Fuchs. When Fuchs started strongly, and Domenick started shakily, all of the self-appointed pundits in the audience gave the match and contest to Yale.

As Fuchs built up a lead in game two, one very knowledgeable spectator, standing by my side said, ..." the match is over, Yale has won, Domenick is playing badly," then he covered himself, "... well its not totally over yet." That was the understatement of the year. Domenick suddenly solidified his focus and his game part way through the second game.

What transpired was a gripping and thrilling battle that would ultimately seal the fates of these two teams. As Domenick switch into gear, he began to steadily ratchet up the pressure and place Fuchs increasingly on the defensive. By dint of Domenick's explosive speed and razor sharp focus, he was able to attack the ball earlier and earlier, cutting off Fuchs balls farther and farther up in the court, retrieving virtually all that Fuchs had to offer, and punctuating rally after rally with exquisitely placed balls that hamstrung Fuchs in the back corners or alternatively stretched and pressed him into the front court.

To Fuchs credit he did not fold. He raised his game, and what followed was a breathtaking series of rallies, that went on and on, exhausting the spectators if not the players.

Domenick was frustrating Fuchs by consistently selecting the right shot to move Fuchs the maximum extent, and by explosively retrieving Fuchs' best stuff - and that stuff was pretty good. This led to excellently played long, full-court rallies, ending enough of the time in a Fuch's misfire, to give Domenick game two and then game three.

Hameed Ahmed at #3 also gave Rochester a point

I asked Domenick what changed in game two, how he had turned things around. "It was simply confidence," he said. "I knew I could win, and believing that, I just played that way."

This changed the chemistry of the match and the dynamics of the two courts. Jim Bristow, playing airtight squash, had just enough of an advantage over the very spirited, but not quite confident Fulham, to take a two game to zero lead.

Fulham, however, perhaps sensing that things were starting to slip away from the Bulldogs on court two, put forth a wonderfully constructed series of points in game three, eventually forcing Bristow to push too hard, make several ill-advised forced shots ending in errors, and giving Fulham game three.

For Martin Heath, Rochester coach, straddled between the two matches, it must have been schizophrenic. "My heart really started racing," Heath admitted, "I had to force myself to try to calm down."

Fulham began game four by continuing to pressure Bristow, while Domenick continued his momentum, building up a big lead in the fourth (and key) game. Domenick reached 8-4, match ball. And then the inexplicable happened. "I told him to keep doing what makes him successful," said Heath, "and what does he do? He reaches match ball and immediately changes what he was doing."

What resulted, were a string of overanxious errors by Domenick, startlingly knotting the game at 8-8.

Switching their attention from one contest to the others, the fans simultaneously saw Jim Bristow of Rochester regroup, and pull ahead and close out John Fulham on one court, while Domenick produced two more mistakes to give the determined Aaron Fuchs the equalizer at 10-8, producing a fifth game for the right to play Princeton tomorrow.

But that was the end. Fuchs had nothing left in his legs. As competitive and equal as game four had been, game five was one-sided. Domenick had come out with regained composure, while Fuchs lasted through two terrifically contested opening points before essentially throwing in the towel, giving Domenick the match and Rochester the win.

Funk beats Grossman to pace Bowdoin

Heath reflected, "I think it's the best I've ever seen him play, as a Yellowjacket or part of the U.S.Junior Men's Team. He's proven he is one of the best U23 players, and one of the best U.S. college players. He's surpassed all expectations.

"His retrieving was unbelievable. Up until the fourth he executed the game plan we had for him. I wanted him to lift the ball and stick it in the corners. He did that well in the second and third, and forgot the plan in the fourth. In the fifth he was putting the ball in the front right corner. He (Domenick) wore him (Fuchs) out. He needed all four corners to do it."

HARVARD REGAINS RESPECT
At the same time that Rochester was staging their epic comeback, Harvard was taking revenge for their regular season defeats. The Crimson lost to Cornell during the regular season and before that, the Ivy Scrimmage, but came through when it counted most, winning 5-4 to send them to the Potter Cup semifinals.

Ned Reeves got things started for the Crimson, defeating Pat Brady in three at the nine spot. Teammates Richard Hill and Niko Hrdy followed suit, winning their matches at 6 and 3, respectively. Thomas Spettigue put his team on the board, defeating Reed Endresen. With five matches left to be decided, and Harvard's Colin West, who is ranked in the top five in the Intercollegiates, yet to take the court, the Crimson needed the fourth match to put them in a very good position. They got it from No. 4 Eliot Buchanan, who defeated David Hilton, also by a 3-0 margin.

"We felt that if we had four in the bag with Colin left to play, we would more than likely win," said Harvard head coach Satinder Bajwa.

Good thing they got those four, as Cornell won at No. 7 and No. 2. Because of the length of the teams' match and tight schedule of Nationals, the No. 1s took to the court while the twos were still playing, with Harvard's Verdi DiSesa losing in three just as West won his first game and became the deciding match.

Bajwa said he was confident his team could win Friday.

"We felt when we had our full team together, we could do a lot better," he said. "If we got them back fully healthy, we felt we'd have a better chance of playing well against Cornell, and we managed to come through."

Neither Buchanan nor Reed Endresen, who played 4 and 5 today, were completely healthy the last time the teams met. While Saturday was a rematch between teams, due to lineup adjustments, the only individual rematch was between DiSesa and Chris Sachvie.

Cornell will face Dartmouth Saturday, while Harvard will meet Trinity.

"I think we have a lot to play for this weekend," Bajwa said of his team which entered the weekend ranked fifth in the country. "At least we've moved ourselves up to No. 4."

Tufts advances past Hamilton

OUTSIDE THE POTTER DIVISION

Outside the hotly contested Potter Cup, there were few upsets on the first day of competition. No. 22 Tufts provided the rare exception, defeating No. 19 Hamilton, 6-3. Tufts' ranking is a bit deceiving, as they were battered by injuries in the first half of the season. Now healthy, the team had an impressive showing Friday.

"We've been playing well lately," said Tufts head coach Doug Eng. "The team is sharp. We're peaking when we need to."

The match came down to the No. 1 and No. 7 players. With Alex Gross and John Dewitt engaged in a marathon on court 1, No. 7 Chris Martin clinched the match. Gross went on to win for Tufts, giving them the 6-3 edge.

Eng said Gross, Martin and Ben Rind really impressed him, as each excelled at what the team has been focusing on over the last six weeks.

"We've been working on harder drives and better front court," Eng said. "That paid off today. Fitness was going to be our strength, we knew that."

Tufts is set to meet Bowdoin Saturday, a team they lost to 7-2 during the season. However, like Harvard/Cornell, most of the individual matchups will be different this time around.

CONROY CUP

The Stanford and Georgetown teams had never played each other prior to Friday, but their meeting was a memorable one. No. 2, Pat Bugas was hit in the cheek by Chris Ji Hwan Ahn's racquet on the first point of the match. Bugas was bleeding substantially, so the match was stopped and was not going to be resumed unless it was needed to decide the match. Stanford went up 4-3, but in the last match No. 4, Derek Rowley, lost his first two games. At that point, Bugas and Ji Hwan Ahn resumed their match.

"Derek was behind 2-0, so we put Pat on because it looked like Derek was going down," said Stanford head coach Mark Talbott.

Rowley made a comeback, and Bugas played well through the pain, both taking their matches, and sending their team into a Saturday meeting with Hobart. Stanford had regular season matches with the three remaining teams in the D division – Hobart, Northwestern and Conn College – and lost to all three in close contests. Talbott feels good about his team's chances as he thinks all four teams are very even.

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