Team Yukon's male squash team climbed up a notch in the national rankings with a win this morning over Prince Edward Island at the 2011 Canada Winter Games in Halifax, N.S.

The fierce battle for ninth and 10th spots came down to the fourth and final game between the Yukon's second ranked player Mustafa Syed and P.E.I.'s Connor Jinks in an extremely close five-game match.

Syed, only 13 years old, defeated Jinks by a score of 55-49 with some close games going into extra points.

Syed won the first two games before dropping the following two.

"It was a pretty tough match,” Syed told the Star during a phone interview from Halifax. "I got overconfident and let him win another two games, and then in the fifth game I really had to change my strategy.”

Jinks got the upper hand on Syed in the fifth and final game, up 10-6 on the Yukoner, who rallied back for six-straight points and the 12-10 win.

Yukoner Zain Syed started off the battle for ninth with a decisive 3-1 win over P.E.I.'s Jordan Sampson with a score of 43-37.

Coleman Newell also defeated his opponent, P.E.I.'s Brandon Higginbotham, in a second match that went the full five games. Newell won 3-2 with a score of 51-44.

Stephen Grundmanis – the number one ranked Yukon player – lost 3-0 to the top P.E.I. player, Nick Trainor, by a 33-19 score line.

"It wasn't that big of a jump, but we're happy we're not last anymore,” Mustafa said.

Team Yukon head coach Khoon Chua said he and the players knew that knocking off P.E.I. would be "an upset win for us,” because the territory was seeded 10th of the 10 squash teams entered in this year's Canada Winter Games. Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick and Nunavut did not field teams.

"It think it's a good result … They all celebrated after their win,” Chua said, adding that nerves played a factor in his team's previous matches.

"In some of the games they should have played better, but they were too nervous,” he said. "We still have to train a lot for future matches to get over the nerves.”