Tennis Team Meets Yale Today For Eastern, Big Three Crowns

The two best tennis teams in the East clash at Soldiers Field at 2:30 p.m. today, as an unbeaten Crimson varsity faces an also unbeaten Yale squad in a match that will decide both the Eastern Intercollegiate League and Big Three championships.

Both teams have swept through their seasons this spring without any serious challenge. The Elis' closest call was a 6-3 win over Penn in a match where Yale swept the six singles and then sent out its second line doubles teams. As for the varsity, only Columbia and Cornell have been able to come as close as 7-2. In short, these two teams are far and away the class of the East.

Today's match, which is six singles and three doubles for EIL purposes and ten and five for the Big Three, could conceivably go 9-0 and 15-0 either way, but it is much more likely to be decided 5-4 and 8-7.

The first singles match is the only one to have a very clear favorite, but even here an upset is a definite possibility. Yale's Donald Dell is, by reputation, the best collegiate tennis player in the East, while Crimson captain Ned Weld has performed rather poorly in his last two outings. But Weld was magnificent a week ago in beating Dartmouth's Dick Hoehn, and if he is that sharp today, Dell may be in for lots of trouble.

The rest of the singles matches are frankly toss-ups, with tentative predictions giving Yale the edge at two and four, Harvard the advantage at three, five and six. No one really knows about seven through ten, because neither side has faced any meaningful opposition down at this level.

Tim Gallwey will be at number two for the varsity, facing Tom Freiberg, a winner over Weld a year ago. Bob Bowditch will meet yale captain Jon Clark at number three, while Fred Vin- ton, Jorge Lemann and Bill Wood round ou the Crimson top six. Their opponents will be Chris Scott, Sandy Wiener, and Rick Wallace, respectively.

In the doubles, the varsity may be a little better all the way, but again it is very hard to tell. Dell and Scott form a fine first pair for Yale, but Weld and Bowditch are very good, and unbeaten, as are Gallwey and Vinton, who meet Freiberg and Clark at number two.

Yale, with its top five men back from last year and with a slightly more impressive record this spring, should rate as a shaky favorite today. But Crimson coach Jack Barnaby says, "Everyone knows Yale is very good, but we're good too, and we will be ready and up for this match." Neither Barnaby nor Yale coach John Skillman was willing last night to predict the outcome. Skillman said, "It should be a very good, hard-fought match," and that is precisely what it is going to be