Defending champion Vic Niederhoffer should win the University Squash Tournament this afternoon, but he'll have to play his best in the finals to do it.

Harvard's number one player should have no trouble beating sophomore Alan Terrell to reach the finals. In the last round, however, he will probably face Jim Zug, a first-year student at the business school, and, like Niederhoffer, one of the best amateur squash players in the country. The match will be played at Hemenway at 5 p.m.

Zug, a Princeton grad, whipped Niederhoffer when Harvard played the Tigers last year. Zug is the top seed in the tournament rankings, which were drawn up in December.

Since then, however, Niederhoffer has beaten Zug three times, once in the finals of the Massachusetts State Tournament and twice in Massachusetts Squash Raquets Association League play. And in the U.S. Amateur championships in Detroit last month, Zug was beaten 3-1 by Sam Howe; Niederhoffer beat Howe in the next round, 3-0.

Zug scored one sensational win recently, however, when he knocked off defending champion Azam Khan in this year's U.S. open. Khan is one of the leading professionals in the world.