The Huskies got a bye in the first round and used Friday to scrimmage the Princeton JV team to get ready for their match on Saturday. On Saturday, they took the court against #39 ranked Colgate University. The match started out well with Freshman #3 James Birkins getting a quick 3-0 win to put the Huskies up 1-0. On the adjacent court, Freshman #6 Clayton Quarrels lost a close 3-1 match which evened the score 1-1. Things started to look bad for Northeastern when Senior #9 player Dave Franco went down 2 games to 0. Dave then pulled off one of the hardest things to do in squash and came back to win 3 straight games after losing the first 2. Dave's match was inspiring to all and fired up the next round of Huskies to go on court. Huskies up 2-1. Up next was #2 Tim Heneroty who quickly took care of his opponent to put Northeastern up 3-1. Freshman Darius Wilsey took the court where Franco had just completed his comback and continued the Husky winning ways, taking care of his opponent 3-0. Huskies up 4-1. Senior Adam Bolduc could win the match for Northeastern if he closed out his match, but lost the first game and things looked it wasnt going to be his day. After a reshuffling of his game strategy, Bolduc came back to win the next game only to lose the third game. Down 2-1 in games, Senior leadership took over again and Bolduc came storming back to take the next two games and his match 3-2 . His win secured the win for Northeastern with 3 dead rubber matches to play. Freshman #1 Chris Birkins took his match 3-1 while Junior co-captains Mike Prince and Steve Portela lost their matches 3-0. Final score, Northeastern 6-Colgate 3.

With the win, Northeastern was into the Finals on Sunday and all signs were pointing to a showdown with #1 seed Penn State who took the Huskies down 6-3 earlier this season. The Huskies were looking forward for revenge until a surprising Columbia team took Penn State down in the semis 6-3 to join Northeastern in the finals.

Sunday was exciting for Northeastern as the team got to watch Trinity College win their 8th straight National Championship before taking the courts for their Division Finals. Coached by former college All-American Michael Ferreria, Columbia looked tough, especailly after their 6-3 win over Penn State. But this was Northeastern's day! The Huskies came out inspired from the get go and quickly took care of everything Columbia threw at them. #3 James Birkins and #9 Dave Franco took their matches easily. #2 Tim Heneroty's match was over before Franco's who had gone on the round before. #8 Darius Wilsey, #5 Adam Bolduc, and #7 Mike Prince each won their match 3-0. Before the tourney officials could update the scoreboards, Northeastern had secured the win 6-1 with two matches left to play. #5 Steve Portela lost a tight battle. Then #1 Chris Birkins took to the court against the undefeated and dangerous Nik Trikha in what turned out to be the match of the weekend. Chris won the first game, lost the second, and won the third. His play was amazing but he had worked almost too hard and tired after the 3rd game. Chris was visibly tired in the 4th game that Trikha easily took 9-0 setting up the 5th and deciding game. Chris found his reserve energy and jumped out to an early 6-1 lead in the fifth only to see Trikha climb back to tie it. Long rally after long rally late in the game, the match was there for either to take. Chris wanted it more and finished the game with a 9-7 win in front of a huge packed gallery. Final score, Northeastern 7, Columbia 2. The score of this match marked Northeastern's biggest win margin in program history--a true showing of how hard they have worked all season to peak at the right time. The win moved Northeastern up in the year-end rankings to 33 which is 9 spots better than their finish last year. With 6 accepted recruits and 7 players from this year's lineup returning, next season could very easily eclipse 05-06.

Final draws and results can be found here: http://www.squashtalk.com/collegesquash/MensCSAteams06.htm
Photos of the weekend can be found at www.squash.neu.edu

*Special Note- Northeastern was a finialst for the Barnaby Trophy for the Most Improved Team Award for moving up the most ranking spots in college squash.