A little bit of luck and a plan helped Peter Mather to his first tournament win of the season last weekend.

Mather, currently ranked second in the territory beat number one seed Jane Bell in a five-set final to take the win in the Mixed A division at the Early Bird Squash tournament.

“She’s a really good squash player; I’m more of a hack kind of,” said Mather. “I have to have a strategy to beat Jane because she’s so good she can predict everything.”

Bell seemed to have Mather’s number in the first two games, returning his shots effortlessly.

Then in the third, Mather made a comeback pass and won the game, making it 2-1.

He continued to fight hard. By game four, both players looked fatigued and between points, Mather was wiping his hands on the walls.

“What happens normally is in the first two games she’s on top of everything I do and beats me,” said Mather.

“Sometimes she takes it easy in the third game and if I can get the third game, it’s always possible to win the next two because you’re both hacking.”

Both Bell and Mather had byes in the first round. Mather began Saturday morning with a five-game match against his wife, Terri Cairns, which he won 3-2 and then dispatched Stephen Buckler 3-0 to get to the centre court final.

Bell’s first match was against Jonathan Hawkins, which she won in three-straight games. next up was Sam Penner and the match went to five games.

“Fitness is tough because all of the games are today, so by the time you get to the third match, you’re pretty tired,” said Bell. “Normally I feel pretty good, but I was definitely getting pretty tired by the end, as was Peter I think.”

Bell, 25, has been playing squash for more than a decade. She competed in the 2003 and 2007 Canada Winter Games and was once ranked third in Canada.

She coaches the junior squash program at Better Bodies.

“I think I play very classic, more proper squash, just because I’ve trained with a lot of really good coaches all over Canada,” said Bell.

Between games, Bell and Mather savoured their time off the court, making trips to the water fountain and to sit with the gathering crowd.

After he won the third game, Mather felt the momentum shifting.

“After that I knew I had a chance and it was who worked harder at that point,” he said. “Normally she beats me three-straight so that’s the biggest thing, that I got to win against her.”

In the Mixed B division, Paul Nelson defeated Tony Radford 3-1 in the final. Mackenzie Cameron beat Jamie Mcallister 3-0 to take the Mixed C title and Oshea Jephson beat Brenna MacPhail to take the Mixed D division in three-straight.

The next tournament for Squash Yukon is the popular, Reservoir Dogs tournament on Nov. 18 and 19.