Cambridge, Mass. - The Trinity College Bantams will compete in the College Squash Association (CSA) National Men's Team Championship (Potter Trophy) Finals for an 18th consecutive season, having taken care of the Yale University Bulldogs, 8-1, in the semifinals this afternoon at Harvard University. No. 2-seeded and defending National Champion Trinity improves to 18-1 with its third win in a row and will face the top-seeded host Harvard Crimson in the finals tomorrow at 1 p.m. Yale drops to 15-3 and will play Franklin and Marshall for third place tomorrow at 2:30 p.m.
Trinity lost to the Crimson in the 1997 and 1998 CSA Finals in its first two trips to the championship round, but rattled off 13 consecutive titles from 1999 to 2011. The Bantams lost, 5-4, at Princeton in the 2012 CSA Finals but came back last year to take back the title in a 6-3 victory over the Crimson at Yale. Harvard, which blanked No. 5-seeded Franklin and Marshal in its semifinal match today, won the regular-season battle between the teams this winter, 7-2, in Hartford on February 4.
Trinity received 3-0 victories by senior co-captain Matthew Mackin (Greenwich, Conn.), sophomore Juan Vargas (Bogota, Colombia), and rookie Affeeq Ismail (Kuching, Malaysia). Yale's point came in the No. 5 match due to a 3-1 victory by Kah Wah Cheong over Trinity junior Elroy Leong (Selangor, Malaysia) who was making his return from an injury.
MATCH RESULTS
1. TC- Miled Zarazua d. Neil Martin, 9-11, 11-9, 11-7, 11-8
2. TC- Karan Malik d. Sam Fenwick, 14-12, 13-11, 11-3
3. TC- Vrishab Kotian d. Zachary Leman, 11-6, 15-13, 9-11, 14-12
4. TC- Juan Vargas d. Thomas Dembinski, 11-7, 11-6, 11-0
5. Y- Kah Wah Cheong d. Elroy Leong, 10-12, 11-5, 11-8, 11-3
6. TC- Zeyad Elshorafy d. Liam McClintock, 11-4, 6-11, 11-3, 11-7
7. TC- Moustafa Hamada d. Eric Caine, 11-7, 8-11, 11-1, 11-9
8. TC- Affeeq Ismail d. Joseph Roberts, 11-9, 11-7, 11-5
9. TC- Matthew Mackin d. Pehlaaj Bajwa, 11-9, 11-7, 11-9
Trinity (Conn.) 8, Yale 1
