Yellowjacket Men at the 2010 CSA Nationals

February 22nd, 2010 Mithun Mukherjee Posted in College Squash, General

The men’s college squash season culminated in the 2010 Men’s CSA Nationals at Yale University in New Haven, CT this past weekend. And as a member of the almost 50 person strong fan club that went down to watch the weekend action aboard the first official Yellowjacket squash fan bus, I can say it was a special experience.

The University of Rochester Men’s team beat Cornell 7-2 in the first round of the Division 1 Potter Cup in a repeat performance of their recent faceoff on the home courts in early February. But the big match was yet to come as they squared off in the semifinals against the most improved team this year, the Yale University Bulldogs, on their home courts. At one point with the score tied at 3-3, the atmosphere was electrifying with fans in the stands, the stairs, the viewing decks, anywhere there was place to stand in the beautiful Brady Squash Center. At that stage, the match could have gone either way but in the end Yale pulled ahead with an gritty 5-4 win to earn a spot in the final against the mighty Trinity Bantams (The Bantam’s eventually won their 12th consecutive title defeating Yale 6-3 in the final on Sunday). The Yellowjacket’s had been just a whisker away from making history as never before have two non-Ivy league schools competed in the finals of the Potter cup in the 80 years of college squash. However, this is the closest the team has been to making it to the CSA finals (they lost 8-1 to Princeton in the semifinals last year) and that in itself is a significant achievement for the Yellowjackets who were ranked 24th in the nation less than five years ago. The team concluded the season with a 7-2 loss to Princeton in the 3/4 place playoff which was played at the Kellner Squash Center on the Trinity college campus on Sunday afternoon.

Rochester alum Piet Van Leer shot some great video of the epic 3-2 win (7-11,11-5,11-8,9-11,11-9) by Rochester’s Will Newnham over Yale’s John Roberts. The win really put Rochester back into the game. (Watch full-screen for hi-def)

For a complete roundup of the weekend’s action, check out CollegeSquashAssociation.Com
See also – Yellowjackets at the 2009 CSA Team Nationals

Photos from 2010 CSA Nationals by Robert McDavid:

(Round 1 – complete set)

(Seminifnals – complete set)

(3/4 Playoff – complete set)