Jan. 28, 2008

ACTON, Mass. - According to the newly-released College Squash Association Individual Rankings presented by Bear Stearns, three Midshipmen are ranked among the nation's top 40 players. It's the most players ranked in the top 50 under head coach Craig Dawson's eight-year watch.

Senior Tucker George (West Hartford, Conn.), Navy's first four-time winner of the USS Barb Squash Racquets Perpetual Trophy, is ranked 16th according to the rankings. As Navy's No. 1 player all four seasons, he has been ranked as high as 28th in the final poll and among the top 50 all four years. George has been out of the lineup the last two weekends recovering from an injury, however, he is expected back on the court before the College Squash Association Team Championship slated for Feb. 14-17. George is undefeated this season with a 10-0 mark and is 55-25 over his four-year career.

Second-year standout Nils Mattsson (Spring House, Pa.) has climbed to No. 29 in the rankings after producing a 14-3 record this season. With George sidelined, Mattsson has stepped into the No. 1 position where he owns a 6-2 record. Meanwhile, team captain Jeff Sawin (Haverford, Pa.) has spent most of the season as Navy's No. 3 player, but like Mattsson, has pushed up in the lineup in recent weeks. Sawin owns a 13-3 overall mark, including a 6-2 record at No. 2 and 6-1 mark at No. 3. He owns an impressive 79-27 career record, that featured a 28-4 record a year ago and an appearance in the Molloy Division title bout against eventual winner and teammate, Mattsson.

Navy's entire nine-man ladder is ranked: rookie Allan Lutz (McLean, Va.) is ranked 114th, sophomore Ben Mantica (Binghamton, N.Y.) is No. 157, freshman Brad Seidel (Toledo, Ohio) is No. 183, junior Michael Beautyman Jr (Plymouth Meeting, Pa.) is No. 187, junior Christopher Zipf (Gladwyne, Pa.) is No. 188, senior Brian Hamilton (Lake Forest, Ill.) is No. 212 and junior Allen Hartley (Charleston, W.Va.) is No. 221. Senior Matt Wiggins (Sour Lake, Texas) has seen action at the No. 9 spot in recent weeks due to injuries and is ranked 367th.

Meanwhile, the second team poll of the year was released and has Navy ranked 13th. Prior to the holiday break, the Midshipmen were ranked No. 10, however, tough losses to Bowdoin and Bates recently have pushed Navy down in the rankings.

Navy will be back in action this weekend when it travels to the state of New York. Navy faces its toughest competition right off the bat with a 6:00 pm matchup against seventh-ranked Rochester on Friday, before battling 30th-ranked Hobart in Geneva, N.Y. on Saturday at 10 a.m. and Colgate later that day in Hamilton, N.Y. at 5:00 pm.

College Squash Association Rankings presented by Bear Stearns - Poll #21.   Trinity2.   Princeton3.   Harvard4.   Yale5.   Western Ontario6.   Dartmouth7.   Rochester8.   Bates9.   Cornell10.  Penn11.  Williams12.  Bowdoin13.  Navy14.  Franklin & Marshall15.  Amherst16.  Brown17.  Tufts18.  St. Lawrence19.  Denison20.  Hamilton