Friday December 1, 2006 @ Northeastern

#27 Northeastern beat #25 Middlebury 5-4 Friday night at Northeastern
and Tufts women take down Northeastern 9-0

Friday nights at Northeastern have always been exciting and fun for the 'new' programs in the CSA. One Friday in 2004, Northeastern had its first match in its history. One Friday in 2005, Northeastern won its first match in its history. This Friday night, Northeastern won yet another match over a higer ranked team. The match tonight vs. #25 Middlebury was much closer than Northeastern's 8-1 win over Wesleyan a couple weeks back.

The evening started with an amazing rendition of the Star Spangeled Banner by Northeastern student Ben Wan. The packed gallery erupted with applause for Ben's performance and with all 4 teams on the same court, a spirited introduction ceremony took place before the fireworks began.

Tufts made quick work of the Lady Huskies winning 9 matches on a 3 court system in under an hour and a half. Tufts didnt drop a game in route to their win.

The men's match of the evening was not so one sided. On a four court system, the first round saw the even numbers step up first. The round saw #'s 3, 5, 7, and 9 to the court first. Middlebury took 7 and 9 with matching tight 3-1 victories. #5 went to Northeastern Freshman Rob Blumenthal 3-1. At #3, a 60 min battle took place with Northeastern Senior Tim Heneroty taking the win 3-2. 2-2 after 4 matches.

Round 2 put #'s 2, 4, 6, and 8 on court. Middlebury won easily at #4 as Ben Broad won a quick 3-0 contest. #6 went to Northeastern Freshman (and Squashbusters alumni) JP Morais. JP notched a solid 3-0 win as his first home match as a Husky--which is also home to his SquashBusters program. 3-3 afer 6 matches.

At this point, Northeastern was up 2-1 at #8, 1-0 at #2 and things looked promising for the Huskies. With an open court available, the #1's got on court while the other matches were still on. Middlebury quickly pushed back on the Huskies and Zach Foster came back to take the #8 match 3-2. 4-3 Middlebury. At #2, Gordon McMorriss came back to tie things up 1-1. Advantage Middlebury. The #1 match quickly went to Northeastern Freshman Khurram Khan before the #2 match was even done with the second game. 4-4.

All eyes focused now on Chris Birkins of Northeastern and McMorris. Some 3 hours before this moment, Birkins and McMorris shook hands during introductions with no idea this battle of some mid-twenty teams in CSA Rankings would be up to them to decide. Birkins found himself up 2-1 but McMorris came back and took the 4th game 10-8. Birkins went up 4-0 in the 5th and McMorris stormed back to a 5-5 tie. The players danced around 6-6 for 6 handouts before Birkins made one last run to take the fifth game 9-6.

5-4 Northeastern. The match was very tight and had just three contests that went just 3 games. It could have gone either way very easily.

Not one day before the tonight's match, Northeastern celebrated its highest ranking in the CSA at #27. Before any more movement happens, Northeastern has to reset and prove it deserves it as they take on a tough MIT squad Saturday morning and #15 Tufts Saturday afternoon.