New Haven, Conn. - Sophomore Ziad Sakr (Tanta, Egypt) broke a 4-4 tie with a thrilling win in five games to lead the Trinity College Bantams to a 5-4 victory over the University of Rochester Yellowjackets in the semifinals of the College Squash Association (CSA) National Team Championship (Potter Trophy) Finals this afternoon at Yale University.  The No. 3-seeded Bantams, who have won the last two Potter Trophy titles and 17 of them since 1999, improve to 16-2 and will play top-seeded Harvard in the finals tomorrow at Yale at 2:45 p.m.  No. 2-seeded Rochester, which had beaten Trinity, 6-3, in January, falls to 14-3 and will play Pennsylvania tomorrow for third place.

Trinity got off to a good start when senior Nku Patrick (San Fernando, Trinidad) added to his storybook season with a 3-0 victory at the bottom of the ladder to improve to 17-0 for the year.  The Bantams trailed, 2-1, for a short while thanks to wins by Rochester's Marcus Sim and Rodrigo Porras, but Trinity senior tri-captain Tom De Mulder (Gent, Belgium) tied the match, 2-2, with a closely-contested over Yellewjacket junior Matt Toth.  All five games were decided by three points or less including 12-10 win for De Mulder in the deciding fifth.

Rochester's Thijs Van der Pluijm and Trinity junior Andrew Lee (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) traded victories to make the score, 3-3.  Thoboki Mohohlo (Johanessburg, South Africa) came through with a 3-1 win in the No. 2 match to offset a 3-0 sweep by Rochester sophomore Ashley Davies at the top of the ladder.  Sakr and Yellowjacket senior Lawrence Kuhn split the first two games and Kuhn eked out a 14-12 victory in the third game.  Sakr came out strong with his back against the wall and tied the score at 2-2 with an 11-4 win in the fourth game and outlasted Kuhn to clinch the match with a 14-12 win in game five.