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At long last, Penn Charter takes squash title
by TOM UTESCHER
Before last Thursday, most people at Penn Charter couldn’t have
told you when the boys squash team had last won the Inter-Ac League championship.
One of the exceptions is Geoff Shields, who is just wrapping up his ninth
season as the Quakers’ coach. Shields was a senior playing the number
three spot for the PC racquetmen when they beat out Episcopal Academy
for the honor in 1975.
Thirty-one years later, the title has returned to Penn Charter, which
completed an 8-0 run through the league last week with a 6-1 home court
victory over defending champ Chestnut Hill Academy.
With no playoff structure in the Inter-Ac, win-loss records from a double
round of league matches determines the final team ranking. CHA’s
Blue Devils had also suffered a 1-6 home loss to Charter, but they swept
home-away series against Episcopal, Haverford and Malvern this season
to finish second in the league at 6-2.
Tenth grader Chris Callis, the Penn Charter number one, has always been
a standout in his age group, and over the past year two of his classmates,
brothers Alex and Matt Domenick, have made great strides to improve their
play, taking over the second and third spots, respectively, for the Quakers.
The young talent at the top of the ladder has been complemented by the
experience of older players in other positions to give Charter a truly
solid line-up.
When PC and CHA first met back on February 7, the visiting Quakers clinched
the team victory in short order by winning each of the first four matches
to finish. For Quakers fans, the rematch would not be the same kind of
anxiety-free affair. Each team was missing one of the athletes who’d
played in the earlier contest; Chestnut Hill number five Steve Wetherill
(a sophomore) and Penn Charter number seven Pat Brady (a junior) were
both under the weather.
In the early going, Matt Domenick topped CHA junior Tyler Stout, 10-8,
9-0, 9-6, and Quakers junior Ross Harrow won 9-1, 10-9, 9-3 in the fifth
spot over Blue Devils senior Bob Goldman, but in a tilt between two sophomores
on the seventh rung, Chestnut Hill picked up a victory as Chip Culp defeated
David Hilton, 10-8, 6-9, 9-5, 9-5.
Penn Charter’s position became more secure when the number six
match wound up with a 9-5, 9-7, 9-6 win by freshman Steve Harrington over
Chestnut Hill senior Ian Holton. Still, the Devils’ advocates had
reason to hope for a long-shot upset when two CHA seniors, number two
Nick Pearson and number four Pat Davis, each took a 2-1 lead in their
respective matches. In the end, though, the Quakers would turn both of
these bouts around.
In the second position, Alex Domenick came on strong at the end to prevail
9-5, 7-9, 9-10, 9-3, 9-1. On the next court, Davis went up 9-0, 2-9, 10-9
against PC senior Adam Greenberg, whom Davis had beaten back on February
7 for Chestnut Hill’s only win. This time, Greenberg rallied to
seize the fourth game, 9-4, and then took a 4-0 lead on his opening serve
in the fifth. Davis caught up at 5-5, then Greenberg recaptured the momentum
and went on to win, 9-6.
Last up was the number one match, in which Callis topped Blue Devils
senior Brooks Russell, 9-2, 9-0, 9-7. The number eight players from the
two schools squared off in an exhibition bout, in which PC’s Aidan
Crofton won in five games over visitor Derek Winter.
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