With the national championship riding on every point, Yale's undefeated squash team won a pair of late, five-game matches to eke out a shaky 5-4 victory over the Crimson Saturday afternoon at Hemenway.

The Harvard freshmen won 9 to 0.

Yale finally clinched the varsity match when third-ranked George West placed a perfect drop shot in front of Harvard's Tony Lake at 14-13 of the fifth game, putting Yale ahead 5 to 3.

In the one remaining match, the Crimson's Jay Nelson, at number nine, was on his way to victory. His subsequent win was Harvard's fourth, and made the Lake-West contest the decisive match.

West Comes From Behind

Heavily favored by even the most blased pre-match ratings, West lost two of the first three games and fell behind 12-9 in the final before turning on the late spree that won the match. He took five straight points to pick up a 14-12 lead, and then dumped a shot into the tin to make the score 14-13, but won on the next point.

Besides Nelson, Paul Sullivan, Doug Walter, and Doug Poole won matches for the varsity. Yale's victories were in the top four posts, and at number seven.

Three of the nine matches went to five games--Lake's, Nelson's and Bob Schwartsman's at seven. Down 2 to 1 in games, Schwartsman rallied to a 10-10 tie in the final game before slipping behind, 13-10. Three shots into the tin by Yale's Fred Smith made the score 13 all, but Smith took all five of the deciding "overtime" points.

At number one, Yale's Raiph Howe put on a dazzling display of shots and control, downing Pete Smith 15-5, 15-10, and 15-11. The Bulldogs' Bob Hetherington looked almost as good against second ranked Hampy Hewell, winning 15-19, 15-9, and 15-6.