December 11, 2002

The Trinity Bantams will attempt to win their third straight USSRA Five-Man Team Championship this weekend, but the home-court advantage the Hartford venue confers will be significantly counter-balanced by the absence from the starting line-up of both Michael Ferreira and Jonathan Smith, both of whom are taking the fall semester off before returning in time to participate in the meat of the intercollegiate schedule this winter. On the other hand, the defending Ivy League champion Princeton Tigers, losers to Trinity by scores of 4-1in the final of the 2001 edition of this event and 8-1 in the dual-meet regular-season and Potter Cup postseason clashes between these two elite varsities, will have their entire formidable starting five available this weekend, by virtue of which they have been awarded the top seed.

A powerful Harvard Club of New York contingent featuring 2002 U. S. Pan
Am Fed Cup team member Richard Chin, 2002 Westchester Classic finalist Tim
Wyant, '98 Intercollegiate Individual Champion Daniel Ezra, last year's
Harvard captain Pete Karlen and his teammate Andy Merrill has been seeded
second, with Trinity I placed third and a New York MSRA squad led by ISDA
doubles star and former PSA top-30 Clive Leach and the Asthana twins Vineet
and Vinay slotted at No. 4. The 16-team A draw begins late Friday afternoon
on Trinity's sparkling Kellner Courts, with the quarters and semis Saturday
morning and afternoon respectively and the final set for Sunday at noon.
There will also be an 8-team B draw, which was won last year by Brunswick
High School, whose returning lettermen will this time have to deal with
Trinity I in the opening round of the A's, having been automatically promoted
to this level by virtue of last season's title.

Trinity head coach and Tournament Director Paul Assaiante is especially
pleased by the manner in which what has for the past several years been
essentially a college event has metamorphosed into a truly national
championship. As recently as last season, all but two of the 16 entrants in
the A Division were college teams (including several from Yale, which is
absent this time due to conflicts with exams), whereas this event features
nine non-college squads, more than half of the draw, including, for the first
time in many years, teams from Northern California, Colorado, Boston,
Baltimore and Hartford, in addition to the New York, Harvard Club and
Brunswick High entries.

In order to repeat as champion, Trinity I will probably have to defeat a
strong Harvard I team (consisting of the "killer B" trio of James Bullock,
Will Broadbent and Michael Blumberg, plus captain Dylan Patterson and junior
Ziggy Whitman) in the quarters and then take on the Harvard Club of New York
in the semis Saturday afternoon. The Bantams will go to war with 2002
Intercollegiate Individual champion Bernardo Samper at No. 1, followed by
Nickolas Kyme, Swiss-born freshman Yvain Badan, Reggie Schonborn and Pat
Malloy. The British-born Ferreira, who played mostly at No. 2 last year
behind Samper, undoubtedly would have been in this line-up had he been
enrolled this semester, as Smith likely would as well.

The fact that Princeton, like Harvard, has its entire "regular" starting
five on hand actually puts some additional pressure on Coach Bob Callahan's
troops, as a win by Trinity under these circumstances would be a demoralizing
omen on what would await several months down the road when Assaiante's entire
arsenal has reassembled for the February matches that determine supremacy
over the college game. The four stars comprising the Princeton class of 2003,
deemed the best in Tiger history by 22-year coach Callahan, namely 2002
Individual finalist Will Evans, 2001 Individual champion David Yik, Dan
Rutherford and Eric Pearson, are seniors now, as well as returning members of
last year's top five, and the only absentee from that group, 2002 team
captain Peter Kelly, has been more than replaced by Egyptian freshman Yasser
el-Halaby, who has already risen to No. 1 on the ladder, and who is the
pre-season favorite to dethrone Samper and win the Individual championship
later this winter.

Actually, Princeton I will have to overcome Trinity second-level
contingent in the very first round, which means that el-Halaby will be facing
Nadeem Osman, who will be returning to competitive action after being
sidelined much of this fall with a sprained ankle. The Tigers will then
likely play a New York II team led by John Musto (assuming he has by then
recovered from a head cold that forced him to withdraw from last weekend's
Gold Racquet invitational) Saturday morning before quite possibly meeting up
with another New York team (Leach et al.) that afternoon in the semi-finals.
The latter set of Gothamites have arguably the most tractable path of any of
the top four seeds to the semis, which they will reach if they can conquer
Harvard II and whoever wins between Hartford and Boston.

The draw has broken in a way that will frequently enable (and challenge)
the best in college squash to pit their games against the best players in
America's foremost squash cities. This can only help both constituencies
going forward while in the process substantially revitalize what had been in
danger of becoming too much of a college-dominated event before the
nation-wide expansion that has magically materialized. Squashtalk will cover
this tournament in full, with updates throughout the weekend and a
comprehensive review shortly after the crowning of this year's Five-Man Team
champion.

A DRAW
Princeton I(1) vs Trinity II; Northern California vs New York II; Hartford vs
Colorado; Harvard II vs New York I (4); Trinity I (3) vs Brunswick High;
Harvard I vs Boston; Princeton II vs Dartmouth; Baltimore vs Harvard Club of
New York (2).