Navy Pair to Square Off in Finals of CSA Individual Championship

Junior Jeff Sawin will meet teammate Nils Mattsson, a rookie, in Sunday's CSA Individual Championship.

	Navy's Jeff Sawin upsest second-seeded Rohit Gupta in four games to earn a spot in the Molloy Division title match.

March 3, 2007

Results

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - Navy's Jeff Sawin (Haverford, Pa.) and Nils Mattsson (Spring House, Pa.) won a pair of matches Saturday to set up an all Navy title fight in the Molloy Division of the 2007 College Squash Association Individual Championship. The former Lawrenceville School teammates will battle for the individual title on Sunday beginning at 11:30 am on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania.

After winning a pair of preliminary matches, Sawin, Mattsson and sophomore Alastair Smith (Hillsborough, N.J.) had the opportunity to become head coach Craig Dawson's first players to win their first three matches of the CSA Individual Championship and advance to the semifinals. Each shared in the feat, as Sawin claimed a 9-7, 6-9, 9-4, 9-5 win over Dartmouth's Edward Newhouse, Mattsson beat fifth-seeded Adam King from Dartmouth, 2-9, 9-4, 9-0, 9-7 and Smith cruised past Yale's Bill Hatch in three. Smith's victory over Hatch was impressive considering Hatch knocked off top-seeded Verdi J DiSesa from Harvard in the round of 16 on Friday evening in four games.

With Navy players earning three of the four semifinal spots, it set up an elimination match between the Mids' Smith and Mattsson. In what proved to be a hard-fought match between teammates, fourth-seeded Mattsson prevailed in three, edging Smith, 10-9, 9-0, 9-6. Sawin, meanwhile, got the best of second-seeded Rohit Gupta from Cornell, 9-2, 9-2, 3-9, 9-3, and earned his way into the championship match against Mattsson. Sawin enters Sunday's championship bout with a 28-3 record, while Mattsson has turned in a 24-9 mark in his rookie campaign.

"It really doesn't get any better than this," said an elated Dawson. "I'm proud of how all three of these young men have played throughout the season and in particular the last two days."

Alastair Smith (Molloy Division)
Quarterfinals - def. Bill Hatch (Yale), 9-4, 9-5, 9-3
Semifinals - lost to Nils Mattsson (Navy), 10-9, 9-0, 9-6

Nils Mattsson; 4th seed (Molloy Division)
Quarterfinals - def. Adam King; 5th seed (Dartmouth), 2-9, 9-4, 9-0, 9-7
Semifinals - def. Alastair Smith (Navy), 10-9, 9-0, 9-6

Jeff Sawin (Molloy Division)
Quarterfinals - def. Edward Newhouse (Dartmouth), 9-7, 6-9, 9-4, 9-5
Semifinals - def. Rohit Gupta; 2nd seed (Cornell), 9-2, 9-2, 3-9, 9-3

### Go Navy ###