Oct. 28, 2008
ANNAPOLIS, Md. - For junior squash player Nils Mattsson (Spring House, Pa.), the saying 'third times a charm' came to fruition last week as he was crowned the 2008 winner of the USS Barb Squash Racquets Perpetual Trophy. Established in 1958 by the late Admiral Eugene Fluckey, a Medal of Honor recipient, the Barb has been won by 35 different midshipmen. Twelve men have claimed ownership of the trophy multiple times with only four players winning it three times.
After narrowly being defeated by All-American Tucker George in the championship match of the 2006 and '07 Barb Tournaments, Mattsson was able to secure his first title win behind a 9-2, 10-9, 9-6 victory over sophomore Allan Lutz (McLean, Va.) last Thursday night. In what head coach Craig Dawson described as a hard-fought match, several points lasted 50-60 rallies with momentum changes throughout the match.
Both Mattsson and Lutz have enjoyed success early on in their careers at the Academy. Mattsson, Navy's No. 2 player in his first two seasons, won the Molloy Division at the 2007 College Squash Association Individual Championship. Meanwhile, Lutz turned in a 23-8 record as a rookie a year ago and won the consolation title in his bracket at the 2008 College Squash Association Individual Championship. His 23 wins were tied with 2007-08 team captain Jeff Sawin as the most on the team.
The week-long Barb Tournament pits the Navy squash players against one another in a round robin competition which then sets up an elimination tournament. The tournament results determine Navy's starting lineup to begin the season which is slated to officially begin Friday when the Mids travel to the opposite coast. Navy battles Cal on Friday at 5:00 pm Pacific Time and will face USC on Saturday at 9:00 am and Stanford at 1:00 pm on the campus of Stanford University.
2008-09 Navy Squash Ladder
1 - Nils Mattsson
2 - Allan Lutz
3 - Ben Mantica
4 - Allen Hartley
5 - Brad Seidel
6 - Justin Langan
7 - Christopher Zipf
8 - Michael Beautyman Jr.
9 - Tommy McNamara
10 - Clayton Young
11 - Will Pappas
12 - John Tracey
### Go Navy ###
