Tennis Team Blanks Army Squad 9-0

After a few rough warm-up sessions against southern tennis, teams, Harvard's varsity tennis team opened its regular season by blanking Army 9-0 at west Point Saturday.

Despite the absence of Captain Dave Benjamin, the netmen swept all six singles matches against the the Cadets with the loss of only two sets. Sophomore Bernie Adelsberg, filling in for Benjamin in the number one spot, won handily, 6-3, 6-1.

Crimson seniors Clive Kileff and Richie Friedman, at numbers two and three, both dropped sets before winning. Friedman edged Army captain Joe Hardin, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

In the bottom three matches, sophomore Jose Gonzales and juniors Dick Appleby and Brian Davis all won in straight sets for Harvard.

Gonzalez and Adelsberg, who went undefeated in freshman ranks last season, teamed to win a easy 6-0, 6-3 victory in the number one doubles.

Last year's second doubles team of Appleby and Davis slid comfortably into their old position, defeating the Cadet number two team in straight sets. Benjamin did manage to play in the doubles and teamed with Friedman for a 12-5 victory in the third match.

On the Southern tour, the tennis team was soundly walloped by a couple of top notch teams. After an 11-10 loss to the Westwood Country Club of Richmond, Virginia, Coach Jack Barnaby split his team into two units, sending Unit A through Georgia and Unit B through the Carolinas.

Playing half the time without the services of Benjamin, who has been hampered by back injury, Unit A lost all four of its matches. The team dropped two 8-1 decisions to Georgia and one 8-1 match to Georgia Tech. The two Georgia schools, rated among the best in the South and probably the top ten in the nation, did not lose any singles matches to Harvard. The Crimson also succumbed to Clemson, 5-4, by bowing in two of the three doubles matches.

Unit B, facing less formidable opposition, won three of its four engagements. The team split with Presbyterian College, winning 7-2 on the first day and then losing 5-4 on the second, Gonzalez was singled out by Barnaby for his sharp play.

The squad edged the same Clemson team, 5-4, which later defeated Unit A. At Davidson. Unit B was leading 4-3 when the match was called.