CHA squash tops Shipley, Charter before break

by TOM UTESCHER

With the only blemish on its record a Dec. 7 setback against national number one Lawrenceville, Chestnut Hill ended the 2004 portion of the squash season with an overall mark of 4-1. In their last week of competition in the old year, the Blue Devils blanked Shipley School, 7-0, on Dec. 14 and then won their Inter-Ac League opener the following afternoon over Penn Charter, 6-1. Both were home matches for CHA.

In the first of the recent bouts, Shipley's Jordan Greenberg took the first game of the number one match, 9-4, but Brooks Russell won the next three, 9-2, 9-2, 9-6, to clinch the bout for Chestnut Hill. The other Devils each won their matches in three straight games. Playing two through seven for the locals were Bobby Dickey, Nick Pearson, Bob Goldman, Pat Davis, Tyler Stout and Ian Holton. CHA also won two exhibition bouts, 3-0, thanks to Sam Wetherill and Dave DiDonato, who yielded a total of just three and two points, respectively.

The Blue Devils knew that Penn Charter would pose a more serious challenge. CHA coach Mike Jefferys reminded his charges that up and down the roster, the PC players stood higher in the USSRA rankings than their Chestnut Hill counterparts.

There were some pitched battles on the bottom half of the ladder. Stout overcame Charter's sophomore number six, Ross Harrow, 3-9, 5-9, 9-7, 9-7, 9-7, and at number five it was Quakers freshman Matt Domenick who outlasted CHA's Davis, 3-9, 5-9, 9-0, 9-0, 9-1.

Domenick's twin brother Alex succumbed in the fourth spot to the Devils' Goldman, 8-10, 9-6, 9-5, 9-0, and at number seven Holton handled PC freshman Dave Hilton, 10-8, 9-4, 9-1. Pearson also won in three, posting scores of 9-3, 9-4, 9-1 against Thomas Mattson, the Quakers' freshman number three. At this point, Chestnut Hill had clinched the team victory with four individual victories, a fact that would lead to truncated matches in the one and two spots.

The top two for Penn Charter, freshman Chris Callis and junior Adam Greenberg, were a bit nicked up, and both were slated to play in the USSRA Junior Olympic tournament at Yale over the weekend. Both withdrew during their contests at CHA, deciding that it was not worth the risk of turning minor injuries into major ones just to try and achieve a closer loss.

Before he retired, Callis had won the first two games (9-3, 9-6) and CHA's Russell won the third (9-2), and at number two only two games were completed, with Greenberg taking the first (9-6) and Dickey the second (9-1). These players will have at least one more shot at one another this season, when CHA travels to Charter for a Jan. 18 rematch.