Freshman Chris Fernandez came through with the pivotal win as St. Lawrence University's men's squash team advanced to the Hoehn Cup semifinals with a 5-4 win over Middlebury College at the College Squash Association's men's nationals at Princeton on Friday.

The Saints, seeded 12th overall and fourth in the Hoehn division, will advance to the quarterfinals to meet 9th overall seed Penn, the top seed in the Hoehn Cup at noon Saturday. SLU, 11-6 on the season, beat Middlebury for the second consecutive match. Playing in the "B" division for the third straight year, Friday's win was the first first-round victory for the Saints, who will make their first Hoehn semifinal appearance on Saturday.

The match was all tied when Fernandez took the court, and Middlebury's Spencer Hurst won games one and two 11-9 and 11-5. Fernandez rallied to tie the match with 11-6 and 11-7 wins in games three and four, and while he trailed Hurst 9-6 in the decisive game five, he scored five straight points to take the match and seal the Saint team victory with an 11-9 win in game five.

Middlebury, seeded 13th overall in the nationals and fifth in the Hoehn division won at one, two and three. Valentin Quan beat Vir Seth 3-0, Jay Dolan outfought Kyle Ogilvy in a tight three game match, 12-10, 11-5, 15-13 and Parker Hurst edged Ibrahim Khan in another tight match 13-12, 13-11, 11-6. Middlebury's Cooper Redpath had the other Panther victory, a 3-2 decision over Amay Merchant.

The Saints won matches six through nine to go with Fernandez' win at four.

Will Campo beat William Moore 3-2, falling behind 2-1 before rallying for the win with 11-6 and 12-10 wins in games four and five. Sebastian Riedelsheimer beat Addison DiSesa 3-0, 11-7, 12-10, 11-4 at seven, Duncan Maxwell beat Willy Clarke 4-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-9 at eight and Michael Badali beat Chris Ivsin 3-0 at nine, 11-8, 11-7, 11-5.