Both of the USA’s first two players found themselves one game away from losing their matches, only to stage incredible comebacks that earned the USA its first team gold after placing second to Canada at the last two Pan American Games.

“Things fell the right way for us today,” said USA coach Sharon Bradey. “They did this for themselves, for the United States and hopefully a little bit for their coach.”

The No. 3 players for each side started the match, with Meredith Quick (Denver, Colo.) and Carolyn Russell squaring off in a rematch of the plate final earlier in the week, which Quick won.

“Having played and beaten her before seemed to add pressure and made it tougher in the beginning,” said Quick. “The nerves got to me a bit.”

It showed in her play, and she found herself on the short end of a pair of 9-3 games, putting her in a 0-2 hole and requiring her to win the next three games. She responded in remarkable fashion in Game 3, establishing a 4-2 lead, then holding off determined challenges from Russell while slowing building toward a 9-3 win of her own.

Game 4 saw Quick charge out to a 5-0 lead on her second service, but the Canadian battled back to draw within one point, 7-6, after her third service. Quick answered by scoring the next two points for a 9-6 win, evening the game count at two. In the critical fifth game, Quick again jumped out early, posting a 3-0 lead in her second service and eroding Russell’s confidence.

“After the second game, I told myself ‘this is the only chance you have at a gold medal – you have to push and stay tough,’” Quick said. “I was able to look her in the eye and see the doubt growing, and that pumped me up that much more, got me going that much harder.”

Russell battled back to tie the game at 4-4, but Quick closed the deal by reeling off the next five points to take the match.

Then came a redux of the individual gold medal match between Latasha Khan (Seattle, Wash.) and Melanie Jans. Khan’s victory over Jans on Wednesday was the first she’d recorded in 14 years of playing against the defending Pan Am champion. The first game was a battle, with Jans emerging victorious 10-9 on the 34th service of the match. Khan answered with a much shorter 9-3 win in the second. Jans then delivered a heavy blow in the third game, using her first service to sprint out to a 5-0 lead that Khan never recovered from, salvaging only one point in the 9-1 loss.

“Melanie came out hard in the third game, and the ball died down, so I wasn’t getting the length that I needed on my shots,” Khan said. “After that game, I knew I had to attack. There was nothing to lose at that point. I had confidence that Louisa (Hall, the team's No. 2 seed) would come through in the third match if we needed her to. It’s much easier to play the team event. You just want to go out and play your best.”

In the fourth game, Khan displayed the mental toughness expected of the tournament’s No. 1 seed, shutting out Jans 9-0 to set up a climactic fifth game with the gold medal on the line. The two battled to a 4-4 tie after the Canadian’s fourth service. The score stayed there until Khan’s sixth service, when she broke the tie with five unanswered points to give the USA the championship. With that, she became the first USA woman to win two gold medals in Pan American Games play.

In the third match, Hall (Philadelphia, Pa.) dropped a two-game decision to Marnie Baizley.

“It was hard to focus on playing since I knew we already had won the gold,” said Hall. “This is one of the most exciting events in my life in squash. We had such a great team. We worked well together.”

In men’s play, the USA defeated Ecuador 3-0 Friday morning, then downed Colombia 2-1 in evening play to close out the tournament in fifth place, matching their seed coming into the tournament.