Teams: Men's Squash: Press Releases

Friday, February 28, 2003

TUFTS Men finish third in summers SQUASH cup
Written by Michael Douglas

MEDFORD -- The Tufts University Men's Squash team wrapped up their best season in years with a third-place finish at the Summers Cup, one of five tournaments co-hosted by Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania during the CSA Team Championships last weekend (Feb. 21-23). The Jumbos began as the fourth seed in the Summer's division, which consisted of the 17th through 24th-ranked squads in the nation, and defeated Rochester in the third-place game. Tufts finishes the 2002-03 season with a 9-8 overall record and its best national ranking in nearly a decade at #19. Including an 11-10 record in 2000-01, Head Coach Doug Eng's men have posted winning seasons in two of the last three years.

The Jumbos opened the tournament with a match against the Stanford Cardinal, which had narrowly defeated Tufts in a 5-4 match last November at Dartmouth. This time, freshman Derek Lee (Hong Kong, China) led the charge with a 3-2 victory over Stanford's Tim Holme in the #4 match that decided the outcome. Freshman Tom Keidel (Watertown, CT) and junior Jordan Kolasinski (Dobbs Ferry, NY) each had with 3-0 sweeps of their opponents at #5 and #7, respectively. Freshman Pranav Tripathi (New Delhi, India) was the victor of the day's closest match, defeating Chris Fesenmeier in the decisive fifth game 10-8 to take a 3-2 victory. In the #8 match, freshman Dan Karlin (Wellesley, MA) defeated Stanford's Salar Chandaria, 3-1.

Tufts couldn't hold the magic in the second round against powerhouse and eventual Summers Cup champion Franklin and Marshall, dropping a 9-0 match which put the Jumbos into the third-place game against Rochester. Just three weeks earlier at Harvard, Tufts had narrowly defeated the Yellow Jackets in a 5-4 victory. This time the margin of victory would be greater. Senior co-captains Chris Choi (Seoul, Korea) and Nathan Anderson (Spring, TX) led the way for the Jumbos with wins at the #1 and #2 positions. Tripathi and Kolasinski added 3-0 victories at the #6 and #7 spots, respectively. Karlin took a 3-1 victory at the #8 spot, while junior Jesse Goldberg (Woodstock, NY) wrapped up a 3-0 victory at the #9 spot to help Tufts to its 6-3 win and a third place finish in the tournament.

Their solid finish at the Summers Cup wrapped up one of the squad's best seasons in years, with a 9-8 team record and a #19 national ranking. Kolaskinski finished the year with an 11-5 individual record playing matches at the #6 and #7 positions. Keidel was right behind at 10-6 in the #5 and #6 spots.  Karlin posted a 9-8 individual record at the #6 through #9 spots, showing his versatility, while Goldberg did his part by compiling a 7-6 record at #7 through #9. Anderson was 8-8 in the #1 and #2 position, and will compete this weekend at the Singles National, hosted by Trinity (Feb. 28 - Mar. 2).  As a team, the Jumbos finished in the national top 20 for the third year in a row, the first time that feat has been accomplished since 1988-90.

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