December 14, 2002

Princeton I, the Harvard Club of New York, two-time defending champion and home team Trinity I and New Jersey all roared into this afternoon's semi-final round, with the 4-1 win posted in this morning's quarters over Colorado representing the only individual match lost by any of the four semi-final seeds. Egyptian-born Princeton

Trinity's #6 Nadeem Osman can't keep pace with P'ton's Yassar El Halaby Photo © 2002 Ron Beck

freshman Yasser El Halaby completely out-played first Nadeem Osman of Trinity II and then John Musto of New York, which thought it had entered two teams but wound up with only one when the Clive Leach-Win Tangitrong-Vineet and Vinay Asthana-Michael Scherl contingent, most of whom live in New Jersey though they work in New York, announced upon arriving in Hartford and prior to their opening match against Harvard II (whom they blanked 5-0) that they were changing their team name to New Jersey.

Musto led his New York teammates to a 5-0 shut-out (one of six such
outcomes in the eight first-round matches and of nine in the 12 total
pre-semis meets, all of which have ended with either 5-0 or 4-1 team tallies)
over Northern California before they were buried by the Tigers, all of whose
members save el-Halaby are seniors and top-five members of last year's Ivy
League champion roster. New Jersey took out Harvard II and Colorado, a
first-round winner over Hartford.

The bottom half saw Bernardo Samper and his mates whitewash first
Brunswick High, last year's champion in the B division, and then Harvard I,
which had previously easily won the battle for town "bragging rights" with a
5-0 win over Boston. Princeton II, composed of the Nos. 6-10 players on the
formidable Tiger ladder, then showed how far ahead the Big Three is of their
Ivy League co-members by conquering Dartmouth's top five, four matches to
one, but they could go no further before being overpowered by the
second-seeded Harvard Club of New York, featuring Tim Wyant, Richard Chin,
Daniel Ezra, Peter Karlen and Andy Merrill, who shut out Princeton II in
preparation for this afternoon's semi-final clash with Trinity I, who won
easily last year when the same two teams met in the same round. It should be
noted, however, that the Harvard Club is better this year than it was in 2001
and Trinity is playing without several key players, most notably Michael
Ferreira, who played No. 1 for the 2001 national intercollegiate champs
before being displaced from that spot by Samper, who as a freshman won the
2002 Intercollegiate Individual crown.

The final round is scheduled for tomorrow at High Noon.

RECAP

Round of 16: Princeton I d Trinity II, 5-0; New York d Northern California,
5-0; Colorado d Hartford, 4-1; New Jersey d Harvard II, 5-0; Trinity I d
Brunswick High, 5-0; Harvard I d Boston, 5-0; Princeton II d Dartmouth, 4-1;
Harvard Club of NY d Baltimore(Jr Wallbangers), 5-0.

Quarters: Princeton I d New York, 5-0; New Jersey d Colorado, 4-1; Trinity I
d Harvard I, 5-0; Harvard Club of NY d Princeton II, 5-0.