Penn Topples Netmen, 5-4

All good things must end some day, and yesterday was the moment for Harvard's tennis team. Rated before the season as a likely third place finisher in, the Eastern Intercollegiate Tennis League, Harvard surprised everybody and compiled a blissful 11-0 league record going into the final match at Penn yesterday.

That last victory never came for the Crimson netmen. The Quakers whipped Harvard at its strongest point, doubles, for a 5-4 win, and threw the league championship into a three-way tie among Harvard, Penn, and Princeton.

Penn has three bruisingly hard-hitting players who are virtually untouchable on their own fast hard courts, and that made the whole difference. The Quakers swept the first three singles in straight sets, and then the same three combined to take the first two doubles.

In the number one match, Penn's big Bailey Brown downed Chum Steels, 6-4, 6-2. Steele managed to break Brown's powerful serve several times, but his own serve wasn't kicking effectively enough on the hard surface.

The second and third singles fairly well sum up the whole afternoon. Harvard could never quite adjust to the Quakers' pure power tactics. Penn Captain John Reese, who just about smacks the fuzz off the ball, took a fast set from Dave Benjamin and then hung on to take the second set, 7-5, just as Benjamin was beginning to gain momentum. The Quaker third man, Clay Hamlin, blasted serves and volleys past baseliner Clive Kileff for a 6-1, 6-2 win.

Dean Peckham, one of two Crimson players who count heavily on big serves, cleaned up on the hard courts. He pounded Quaker number four man Rich Kolker, 6-1, 6-3, to complete an undefeated individual season. Harvard's other hitter, sixth man Brian Davis, nudged out Fred George 6-2 in the third set to put the Crimson back in the ball game.

Friedman Rallies

Number five man Richie Friedman, the one Harvard player who should have been hurt most by the hard courts, made a valiant comeback against sharp-serving Ed Serues, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1, to give Harvard a favorable 3-3 split in the singles.

Doubles, which won the Princeton match for Harvard, spelled defeat against Penn. Hamlin' serve and Reese's overall power was too much slam-bang for Steels and Peckham, who bowed, 6-2, 6-3.

Benjamin and Kileff won the number three doubles over Art Bellas and Howard Coonley in three sets to even the doubles ETAOINETAOIN ETAO IN I N score at 4-4. In the number two doubles, Crimson sophomores Davis and Dick Appleby made a grand effort taking the Unfortunately, the Quaker pair grabbed first set, 6-2, against George and Brown, the second set 6-2, but it looked like Harvard might prevail when Appleby and Davis broke Brown's service at the start of the third set. Penn, however, broke back twice, and won the deciding set, 6-3.

Penn's victory undoubtedly will be a lift for Eastern racquet coaches in general, who have been plagued by Harvard coach Jack Barnaby's "good luck charm." In the past several years, Barnaby has won an amazing number of "cliff-hangers" in tennis and squash.

After the match, Barnaby praised Penn as having "a great team on their own courts and deserving a share of the title."