Vanderbilt winners: Eric Rodwell, Jeff Meckstroth, Nick Nickell, Coach Eric Kokish, Bob Hamman, Richard Freeman and Paul Soloway.

Nickell rolls to Vanderbilt Win

The Nick Nickell team broke open a close match in the second quarter and went on to a 158- 77 victory over the Richard Pavlicek squad in the Vanderbilt Knockout Teams.

It was the second victory in the Vanderbilt for Nickell, Richard Freeman, Bob Hamman, Paul Soloway, Eric Rodwell and Jeff Meckstroth. The team won for the first time in 2000, although individual team members have multiple wins in the Vanderbilt.

The underdogs led 31-28 after the first quarter, but Nickell surged ahead with a 49-7 second set. A turning point in the match was a deal in which Kamil and Fleisher reached a makeable vulnerable 6 which failed by three tricks while Shenkin was beaten five tricks in 2 doubled for minus 1100. That was a 16-IMP loss, and Nickell never trailed again.

The powerful team, one of two squads which will represent the U.S. in the Bermuda Bowl later this year, added to the lead with a 48-11 third quarter.

Hamman and Soloway now have six Vanderbilts victories, Meckstroth and Rodwell five each, Freeman three and Nickell two. In Freeman’s first Vanderbilt victory, in 1979, Meckstroth was on the runner-up team.