December 14, 2002

Although only seven on the 16 teams entered in this year's USSRA Five-Man Team championships were college varsities (as opposed to 14 such entries in 2001), the final round tomorrow at noon will be all-collegian, and in fact will consist of the same two finalists who vied for the last year's crown, which went to Trinity, four matches to one, and served as a prelude to Trinity's subsequent 8-1 victories over the Ivy League champion Princeton Tigers in both the regular-season meet in New Jersey and the Potter Cup postseason final at Harvard. Top-seeded Princeton (who won this event three years ago) and defending two-time USSRA Five-Man champion Trinity both earned 4-1 decisions this afternoon over New Jersey and the Harvard Club of New York respectively to qualify for the Sunday summit, which will take place at Trinity's home Kellner Courts in Hartford, CT.

LEACH FADES FAST
The Princeton-New Jersey battle featured what it was thought would be a titanic clash at the top between No. 1 players Yasser el-Halaby, the freshman sensation from Egypt, and ISDA pro doubles star Clive Leach, the British-born former PSA top 30 performer who along with his partner Blair Horler forms one of the top doubles teams on the North American pro tour.

Leach in his last Hartford appearance had won a PSA tour stop, defeating former PSA top-three Brett Martin in the final, but on this occasion he had no answer to
el-Halaby's pace and constant pressure, which accounted for a surprisingly dominant 3-1 triumph that set the tone for the success his teammates achieved. Leach was hoping to provide too much consistency for El Halaby, but a number of impressive gets under full pressure by El Halaby seemed to break Leach's spirit and by the end of the second game he was failing to run for some routine rail drives by El Halaby. Though Leach won the third game, the writing was on the wall, as Leach came out for the break and announced to all present that El Halaby was "too young, too fast, and too fit."

Dan Rutherford and Eric Pearson mopped up the Nos. 4 and 5 positions
with straight-game wins over Vinay Asthana and former American Maccabean
Games team member Michael Scherl respectively, while 2001 Intercollegiate
Individual winner David Yik won in four over former Williams star Win
Tangjitrong. New Jersey's only win was provided by Asthana's twin brother
Vineet, who defeated Will Evans, the New Zealand native who reached last
year's Intercollegiate Individual final, in a two game dead rubber. The Tigers will be hoping Evans reaches form tomorrow, as the entire weekend he has been displaying sloppy play in a series of meaningless dead rubbers.

SAMPER AND KYME IMPRESS
Having reached the final, the Tigers will once again do battle with a Trinity Bantam unit that to this point has not felt the absence of Michael Ferreira and John Smith, both of whom are taking this semester off from school. Sophomore Bernardo Samper, Evans's conqueror in that 2002 Intercollegiate final, predictably had much
too much firepower for 2001 U. S. World Team member Tim Wyant. Wyant, whose main attacking option is a drop, was constantly victimized by Bernardo's ability to outdo Wyant in short game battles up front.

On the opposite court, Nick Kyme's four-game win over perennial U. S. team member and three-time S. L. Green finalist Richard Chin was not nearly as expected, and administered a blow from which the second-seeded Harvard Club would never recover. Kyme was a highly motivated whirlwind on court and Chin seemed surprised and unable to regroup.

Sophomore Reggie Schonborn, a runner-up last month in the Holt Bullington Invitational in Richmond, clinched the team outcome with his win over recent Crimson grad Andy Merrill, which rendered meaningless 2002 Harvard captain's Peter Karlen's impressive victory over Bantam junior Pat Malloy.

Swiss freshman Yvain Badan closed out the action with a four-game dead rubber decision over Daniel Ezra, who failed to find the form that had led the Harvard Club to a 3-0 win over its Yale Club rivals in the MSRA title match last spring.

A LOT AT STAKE FOR PRINCETONIANS
If Princeton is unable to defeat Trinity in tomorrow's final, under what would seem to be optimal circumstances, it is difficult to imagine the Tigers triumphing when the two teams meet at this same site in the intercollegiate season a little over two months from now. The strength of the Princeton squad lies in its top five, deemed the strongest in school history by head coach Bob Callahan, now in his 22nd season, and in this match they don't have to "carry" the Nos. 6-9 players, who, for example, have lost all 12 of their combined matches in Princeton's last three 5-4 wins over Yale.

The Princeton bottom four may have something to say about that, however. They served notice of the team's improved depth this weekend, as the Princeton second five surprisingly dominated Dartmouth's top five in a 4-1 win and then this afternoon pushed the Harvard top five quite far, gaining in fact an opportunity to win three out of the five contested matches - two of those going five and one a long four.

A Princeton win tomorrow would therefore not only prevent a three-peat for Trinity head coach Paul Assaiante and his talented crew but also infuse a needed dose of credibility into the notion that any current college team can terminate the dynasty that the Bantams have forged over the past four undefeated seasons. Stay tuned.

OTHER ACTION
Meanwhile, a strong Chicago squad, led by University Club pro John Flanigan reached the "B" finals where they meet a New York squad led by Alex Kam. The event seen strong play by teams from Northern California and Colorado, in addition to the traditional contenders from the east.

Semi-Final Recap

Princeton d New Jersey, 4-1
Trinity I d Harvard Club of NY, 4-1.

[complete results]