Hartford, Conn. - Sophomore Rick Penders (Maastricht, Netherlands) outdueled Mario Yanez (Aguascalientes, Mexico), 3-2, with an 11-9 win in the fifth game to break a 4-4 tie and give the Trinity College Bantams a 5-4 victory over the University of Rochester Yellowjackets in men's squash action this afternoon at Kellner Center. Trinity, the defending National Champions and the nation's top-ranked team, improves to 13-0 with its fourth win in five days, while the No. 5-ranked Yellowjackets drop to 5-2 with their first loss in five matches. Trinity had knocked off No. 2-ranked Pennsylvania and Rochester had edged No. 3-ranked Harvard yesterday to set today's match up as a possible battle for the top spot in the next College Squash Association (CSA) National Rankings.
The match started out in promising fashion for Trinity, as first-year Nku Patrick (San Fernando, Trinidad) won, 3-0, at the No. 9 position, while senior co-captain Juan Vargas (Bogota, Colombia) and sophomore James Evans (Maidstone, England) posted 3-1 victories at No. 3 and No. 6, respectively. Rochester answered in resounding fashion with a sweep of the second wave that included a 3-0 shutout at No. 8 by sophomore Ben Pitfield (Toronto, Ontario), a 3-1 triumph by rookie Lawrence Kuhn (George, South Africa), and a dramatic 3-2 win at the second spot on the ladder by Ryosei Kobayashi (Yokohama, Japan).
Trinity sophomore Omar Allaudin (Lahore, Pakistan) put a halt to the Yellowjacket momentum with a 3-0 win in the No. 7 match, giving the home squad a 4-3 lead. Rochester sophomore Tomotaka Endo (Kawasaki, Japan) responded with an 11-9 win in the fourth game to post a 3-1 win over Trintiy first-year Tom De Mulder (Gent, Belgium) to tie the match at 4-all with Penders and Yanez tied at 1-1 in the last competition of the match. The teams' top two battled to a 2-2 tie and were knotted at 9-9 in the fifth game when Penders took two points in a row to clinch the decision for the Bantams.
MATCH RESULTS
1. TC- Rick Penders d. Mario Yanez, 8-11, 11-6, 11-8, 5-11, 11-9
2. R- Ryosei Kobayashi d. Michael Craig, 10-12, 11-2, 6-11, 11-7, 11-5
3. TC– Juan Vargas d. Neil Cordell, 13-11, 11-5, 8-11, 11-6
4. R- Tomotaka Endo d. Tom De Mulder, 9-11, 11-4, 11-7, 11-9
5. R- Lawrence Kuhn d. Affeeq Ishmail, 11-4, 11-7, 10-12, 11-9
6. TC- James Evans vs. Michelangelo Bertocchi, 11-13, 15-13, 11-6, 11-3
7. TC- Omar Allaudin vs. Aria Fazelimanesh, 15-13, 11-8, 11-4
8. R- Ben Pitfield d. Tor Christoffersen, 11-4, 11-9, 11-5
9. TC- Nku Patrick d. Rodrigo Porras 11-7, 11-1, 11-9
Trinity (Conn.) 5 vs. Rochester 4
