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The Hartford Courant
Athletic coaches may not be able to teach heart, but Trinity College men's squash coach Paul Assaiante has certainly found a way to tap it. His team displayed plenty of internal grit as it turned back a stern challenge from Princeton University on Wednesday evening.
Since 1998, the Bantams have been the team to beat in the four-walled racket game that plays like a geometric chess match. Since losing to Harvard University in the 1998 national finals, Trinity has racked up nine national collegiate titles and won 176 consecutive matches — the longest current winning streak in college sports. This year, many who follow play in the rarefied upper ranks of squash named Princeton as the contender most likely to stop Trinity's streaks.
So 800 spectators jammed the snug galleries at Trinity's courts — from floor to rafters — for the biggest match of the year. Silence fell over the glass-walled enclosures as the players traded soaring lobs and blistering drives, all the while looking for openings in their opponents' defense.
Trinity's Supreet Singh, playing at No.6 on the nine-man ladder, lost the first two games in his best-of-five-games match against Santiago Imberton. Singh's match had the potential to set the tone for Trinity. But in the third game, Singh summoned his resolve and took a game from Imberton. His confidence returned, Singh patiently wore down his opponent in taking the next two deciding games, the roar of the crowd buoying him with every point.
Gustav Detter, whose come-from-behind victory over a Princeton player two years ago is still discussed, played at No.2. Although challenged in the first game by Kimlee Wong, who is ranked above him, Detter relentlessly chased down shot after shot. Detter won the first and seemed sure and certain in dispatching Wong in three straight. Nevertheless, even with a commanding lead, Detter took nothing for granted, sliding headlong into the wall in pursuit of shots.
Baset Chaudhry, Trinity's best player, dispatched the top-ranked national player from Princeton with a combination of powerful drives and soft drop shots. By then, Trinity had the match in hand, winning 6-3.
There will be no resting as the men head into the New England Small College Athletic Conference championships in Hartford this weekend, face Harvard on Wednesday and then go to the national team championship Feb. 15, where Princeton will be spoiling for another chance.
Assaiante tells his players to focus on their matches so they won't carry the weight of the team's streak onto the court. Still, the championship banners hang high over the courts, inspiring echoes of the players who began it all and, perhaps, causing a flagging player to dig a little deeper.
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