Making history

February 22nd, 2001 Mithun Mukherjee Posted in College Squash, General, Video | Comments »

A firsthand account of the Rochester vs Yale quarterfinal victory at the 2009 CSA Nationals by Paul Rubery:

Today was a historic day for the University of Rochester Men’s Squash Team. After having been ranked in the mid-twenties just four years ago, the squad clinched a spot amongst the top four with a win over 3rd ranked Yale earlier this morning. A very close 5-4 result that featured an epic comeback and a series of tight finishes, the match signaled the long anticipated arrival of a program that has been on the steady rise since the arrival of Coach Martin Heath three years ago.

The day started off with Hameed Ahmed, Will Newnham, and Yohay Wakabayashi playing the three, six, and nine spots respectively. Yohay’s match was the first to end with him losing to C.J. Plimpton in three. Despite putting up a good effort, Yohay found the fellow lefty a difficult obstacle to overcome. Meanwhile, fellow Yellowjacket Hameed Ahmed took care of his Irish opponent John Roberts with relative ease. Using trademark cross-court nicks and the Finnish Flair that he has become renowned for Ahmed won his match 9-2, 9-0, 10-9. During Ahmed’s match, Adam Perkiomaki played a five game thriller against Yale number eight Francis Johnson. After losing the first two sets, Perkiomaki eased into form and controlled the match well into the fifth. However, despite controlling the T and using his attacking short game, Johnson made a comeback and managed to pull the momentum and the win away from Perkiomaki.

At this point Yale led 3-2 and Rochester was relying on Sophomore Will Newnham to get a positive result. Playing a tight and succinct game against Colin Campbell, Newnham flew through the first two sets with little trouble. However, Campbell quickly turned his luck around and pushed Will into the fifth. Clearly distracted by a hurt knee, Newnham seemed to have difficulty with abrupt movements in the last game and could not dominate in the front as he did earlier in the match. Ultimately Will lost his match against Campbell 9-5, 9-2, 4-9, 5-9, 7-9.

The next round of matches saw new freshman Benjamin Fischer, Fred Reid, and Joe Chapman play the number two, five, and seven spots. Fred Reid was the first of this group to finish with a quick victory over Ryan Dowd. In all honesty, Dowd was never really a match for Reid and was easily dispatched in three by Fred’s flashy style of play and quick court movements. Next up was Joe Chapman who played against Yale’s Naishadh Lalwani. Losing in four, Chapman ultimately put forth a good fight but was unable to really hold control and force Lalwani to make errors. Finally, Benjamin Fischer worked U.S. U-23 champion Todd Ruth around the court and easily took his match 9-7, 9-5, 9-0.

With the conclusion of Fischer’s match, the score stood at 4-3 in Yale’s favor and the crowd began gather around the two far courts with Jim Bristow and John Fulham on one and Matt Domenick and Aaron Fuchs on the second. Jim Bristow started out his match extremely well winning the first two games 9-4, 9-0, but then lost the third to Fulham 6-9. When asked what went wrong Jim responded, “I just choked up and got tight. I realized that I had to open the court up a bit because he was good at a basic game, but couldn’t cope with variation”. After the third set Jim convincingly sealed up his match with a 9-0 victory in the fourth game. While Jim was playing a relatively stress free match, Matt Domenick battled it out against Aaron Fuchs, Yale’s number one for the regular season. Matt’s match started out on a negative note with Fuchs dominating the first set through cross-court nicks and deceptive play. However, after a brief chat with Coach Martin Heath, Domenick eased into his form and controlled the pace of the game. Moving Fuchs around the court, Matt found his opponent’s weakness and played tight drops in the right hand corner to win the next two games. Unfortunately, despite Matt’s apparent momentum and the crowd’s support, Fuchs manages to get back the forth set from Domenick – with the match tied at 4-all, and the final result between Rochester and Yale hinged on the fifth game. In the fifth, Matt quickly asserted his dominance and used the crowd’s enthusiasm to his advantage. Soon leading 8-0 with a set of broken strings, Domenick left the court to find his replacement racket. Then, upon entering the court, Matt took two practice hits, played a sub-five second rally, and exploded into celebration after realizing he just won the match and the most important game in Rochester Squash History.