Feb. 29, 2008

Complete Results

Day One CSA Individual Championship Results

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - All four of Navy's entrants on the men's side of the College Squash Association Individual Championship held at the Naval Academy Friday remain in contention following the first day of action, while freshman Julie Kiernan (Bernardsville, N.J.), the Mids' first woman to play in the tournament, bowed out after two matches.

Though five players represented the Midshipmen in the tournament, all eyes were on Navy senior Tucker George (West Hartford, Conn.) who took center stage in his opening match over the noon hour. George, ranked 14th nationally, squared off against Trinity's Supreet Singh, ranked No. 19, in front of a raucous crowd that nearly doubled the previous championship attendance mark of 1,200. Members of the Brigade of Midshipmen helped form a crowd of 2,329 that helped spark a 9-1 victory by George in the opening game. Singh, however, regrouped and went on to win three straight games to send George to the consolation bracket.

George kept his dreams of becoming an All-American alive when he survived a scare by 30th-ranked Jake Gross of Tufts in the round of 16. Gross took the first game by a 9-1 count, but the match was evened by a 9-3 game two win by George. Gross, though, took the lead once again by handing George a 9-6 setback. George blanked Gross in the four game, 9-0, and sealed the match by taking game five, 9-5.

George will battle Trinity's Randy Lim, ranked 26th, Saturday at 11:40 am in Halsey Field House. Should George win his match against Lim, he would become Navy's first squash All-American since Jamie Slough, who was a four-time All-American (1991-94).

Three Navy squash players won their first two rounds in the Molloy Division to advance to the premier quarterfinals of the College Squash Association Individual Championship at the University of Pennsylvania on Friday.

Sophomore Nils Mattsson (Spring House, Pa.), the defending Molloy Cup title winner, opened up this year's tournament in top form. Mattsson easily won his first two matches, beating both Haverford's Alexander Salton (4,5,2) and Princeton's Peter Sopher (0,1,6) in three games. Mattsson will meet a solid opponent in Frederick Reid in the round of 16 on Saturday at 11:40 am in Bancroft Hall.

Team captain Jeff Sawin (Haverford, Pa.) turned in a 3-0 victory over Harvard's Alexander Lavoie in the round of 64, but suffered a five-game setback to Ethan Buchsbaum of Williams. Sawin opened the match with a 9-5 victory, but dropped the next two games, 9-4 and 9-2. He did, however, come back to even the match at two apiece by claiming game four, 9-3. As if a five-game match wasn't difficult enough, the match was decided by a 10-8 count in favor of Buchsbaum, as Sawin will now play in the consolation bracket against an opponent to be determined on Saturday morning.

Navy's final men's competitor of the tournament was rookie Allan Lutz (McLean, Va.) how dropped a straight-set match against Princeton's Brendon Bascom, 9-5, 9-3, 9-5. Lutz will be back in action Saturday against Stephen Preefer from Dartmouth beginning at 9:00 am in Halsey Field House.

Though Kiernan did not find the success she had opened playing in her first National Championship, she gained a great deal of experience and represented the Naval Academy well as the first woman to compete in a squash Individual National Championship. Kiernan dropped her opening match to Mount Holyoke's Menusha Hettiarachchi, 9-2, 9-0, 9-0, before retiring from the tournament after a 3-1 loss to Tufts' Stefanie Marx, 5-9, 9-7, 9-4, 9-7.

Saturday's action is set to begin at the Halsey Field House International Squash Complex and Bancroft Hall at 9:00 am. Admission is free.

NAVY AT THE CSA INDIVIDUAL CHAMPIONSHIP

Tucker George (Potter Division)
Round of 32 lost to Supreet Singh (Trinity), 1-9, 9-4, 9-7, 9-7
Consolation/ Rd of 16 def. Jake Gross (Tufts), 1-9, 9-3, 6-9, 9-0, 9-5

Nils Mattsson (Molloy Division)
Round of 64 def. Alexander Salton (Haverford), 9-4, 9-5, 9-2
Round of 32 def. Peter Sopher (Princeton), 9-0, 9-1, 9-6

Jeff Sawin (Molloy Division)
Round of 64 def. Alexander Lavoie (Harvard), 9-1, 9-0, 9-5
Round of 32 lost to Ethan Buchsbaum (Williams), 5-9, 9-4, 9-3, 3-9, 10-8

Allan Lutz (Molloy Division)
Round of 64 lost to Brendan Bascom (Princeton), 9-5, 9-3, 9-5

Julie Kiernan (Holleran Division)
Round of 64 lost to Menusha Hettiarachchi (Mount Holyoke), 9-2, 9-0, 9-0
Consolation/ Rd of 32 lost to Stefanie Marx (Tufts), 4-9, 9-7, 9-4, 9-7