Nov. 4, 2006

Results

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. - Freshmen Nils Mattsson (Spring House, Pa.) and Ben Mantica (Binghamton, N.Y.) each won a pair of matches, pacing the 15th-ranked Navy squash team to victories over Cal and Stanford in the opening weekend of play. The Mids concluded a successful weekend on the West Coast with a 6-3 win over the Bay Area Club in an exhibition match Saturday afternoon.

Navy opened the weekend with a 9-0 victory over an injury-riddled Cal squad who is ranked 41st in the preseason College Squash Association rankings. Mattsson swept Andrew Hsu at the No. 1 spot on the ladder, while second-year standout Alastair Smith came back to win three in a row after dropping the first game, 9-7. Cal's Amos Vernon gave Navy sophomore Michael Beautyman Jr. (Plymouth Meeting, Pa.) all he could handle, as Vernon jumped out to an early 2-0 lead. Beautyman Jr., however came back to win the match in five games, earning 9-3, 9-6, 9-5 wins in the final three games. Mantica, sophomore Christopher Zipf (Gladwyne, Pa.) and senior Dan Hellier (Modesto, Calif.) each won their matches by 3-0 decisions. The final three matches were won by Cal default.

On Saturday, Navy cruised to an 8-1 win over 24th-ranked Stanford with its lone loss coming in a five-gamer. Sophomore Allen Hartley (Charleston, W.Va.) and his foe Ben Peterson traded wins at the No. 8 position with Peterson pulling out a 10-8 decision over Navy's Hartley in the fifth game. Beautyman Jr. defeated George Kwon in four games, while the remaining matches were 3-0 decisions in Navy's favor, including a 3-0 victory by team captain Tucker George (West Hartford, Conn.) at No. 1.

The Mids will be back in action next weekend when they play host to the Navy Invitational Friday through Sunday. First up on the list is Denison on Friday at 6:00 pm.