Box Score

NEW HAVEN, CT – The best season ever in the history of University of Rochester squash ended with a heartbreaking 5-4 loss to Yale University in the championship match of the College Squash Association Potter Cup tournament at Yale's Brady Squash Center on Sunday evening.
 
Yale's Kah Wah Cheong upended UR sophomore Tomotaka Endo in the final match at the #4 position to break a 4-4 tie, clinching the first national title for the Bulldogs (15-2) since the 1989-90 season.  Cheong won the match in four tough games, 11-9, 9-11, 15-13 and 11-8.
 
Sunday's match had remarkable similarities to the earlier match this season between Yale and Rochester held on UR's campus on January 17th.  In that one though, the 5-4 decision went in favor of the Yellowjackets with a five game win from Endo over Cheong being the decisive point.
 

The Yellowjackets (12-4) were able to rally from 4-2 down in the overall match, earning two key wins in the final set of matches from junior Mario Yanez and sophomore Micky Bertocchi at the #1 and #7 positions respectively, setting up the winner take all match.  Yanez was a 3-0 winner at the top spot defeating Yale's Zachary Leman 11-6, 11-7 and 11-5 and Bertocchi was impressive in a 13-11, 11-7, 11-9 win over Pierson Broadwater.
 
After Rochester co-captain Neil Cordell earned the first point of the match at number 3 in three games over Sam Fenwick (11-4, 11-7, 11-5), the host Bulldogs picked up two wins at positions 6 and 9 to grab a 2-1 lead.  Max Martin was able to win in four games over UR's Aria Fazelimanesh 8-11, 11-5, 11-7 and 11-7 at six and Arjun Kochhar topped UR senior Meng Xiaomen 11-3, 11-8 and 12-10 at nine.
 
In the second set of matches, Yale again took two of three points to pull ahead 4-2.  First, Liam McClintock defeated Rochester's Ben Pitfield at the #8 position in four games (11-9, 3-11, 11-5, 11-4).  That was followed by a UR win from Ryosei Kobayashi at #2 over Thomas Dembinski (15-13, 6-11, 11-0, 11-4).  At the number 5 slot, the Bulldogs' Thomas Kingshott outlasted Lawrence Kuhn in five games to put Yale within one match of claiming the title.  Kingshott would emerge with a 10-12, 11-8, 11-8, 8-11, 11-9 win.
 
The national title game appearance was the first for a Rochester squad that has only reached the semifinals of the top division only four times in history.  UR's best result prior to Sunday was earning 3rd place in at the national tournament 2008-09 season.  The 12 wins this season also ties for the second most in a single season in Yellowjacket squash history.
 
Rochester's team season is concluded, but select Yellowjackets will compete at the CSA Individual Championships at Chelsea Piers in Stamford, CT next weekend from March 4-6.