It had to happen sometime. Everyone loses sooner or later--even the Harvard squash team.

Princeton, which by all rights should have defeated Harvard last year and the year before, finally pulled the big one yesterday, 5-4. Princeton, which came within two points of losing to Navy last Saturday, ended Harvard's 47-match winning streak and four-year reign as national intercollegiate team champion.

The match was nip-and-tuck all the way. With the score tied 4-4, Princeton number five man Nick Kourides, an agile tennis convert with deep strokes, battled Steve Simpson before a packed gallery on the number 10 court. The steady Kourides rallied from a 13-11 deficit in the fourth game to win the game and match, 16-15, dropping the final shot beyond the reach of a diving Simpson.

Kourides won the final match, but the day's hero was Crimson captain Dinny Adams. With Harvard trailing 4-3, Adams defeated Burt Gay, the nation's top-rated college player, 13-15, 15-11, 12-15, 15-12, 15-7.

Down 2-1 in games and aware that Princeton needed only one more match for the victory, Adams pulled out a tense fourth game in which neither player could maintain a lead of more than two points. At 13-12 for Adams, they cautiously exchanged deep strokes for a couple of minutes before Gay tinned a drop volley. Adams whipped a back-hand cross-court past him for the game-winning point.

Mixing drops and drives with confidence, Adams romped in the fifth game, 15-7.

Two Crimson juniors, Craig Stapleton (six) and Matt Hall (eight), continued their streak of dependable play. After momentarily lapsing into a slamming contest with Princeton's Bill Reed, Stapleton regained control of the match for a 15-12, 17-18, 10-15, 15-11, 15-10 win. Hall, undefeated this season, pressed Tiger Chris Mayer to the wall, 15-9, 7-15, 15-11, 15-10.

For Princeton, Stew Marr (seven) and John Duer (nine) blitzed Harvard's Peter Brooks and Gordon Black by 3-0 scores.

While Marr and Duer were giving Princeton a quick two-match bulge, undefeated Crimson sophomore Rick Sterne was taming Tom Gilbert's powerful backhand in the number three match.

Surprise Wins

The really unexpected Princeton wins came in the second and fourth matches. Keith Jennings, who covers a squash court more like a Pakistani than a Princetonian, wore down Harvard's Jose Gonzalez, 15-10, 2-15, 5-15, 15-10, 15-6. After losing the first game, Gonzalez pinpointed his drop shots to win the next two games by ridiculous scores.

Then Jennings began to anticipate Gonzalez's moves and ran out the final two games.

But the match which summed up the whole afternoon was at number four, Todd Wilkinson, a Crimson senior who had never lost a varsity match, mixed deep crosscourt shots with a variety of drops to win the first two games over aggressive Walt Smedley, 15-9 and 15-8. Smedley, a slugger who doesn't forfeit a point until he is down on all fours, rallied to pull out a tight third game, 15-13.

It was all over, Smedley shell-shocked a bruised and exhausted Wilkinson with hard serves and blazing strokes to win the last two games, 15-4 and 15-9.

Wilkinson, dased and walking off the court as a loser for the first time, foreshadowed the Harvard downfall. How could it happen?