Tennis Team Goes South To Open Uncertain Year

Harvard's 1968 varsity tennis season promises to be almost as interesting as it is uncertain.

Coach Jack Barnaby summed up Harvard's prospects philosophically. "We could be very good and we could be very bad." Barnaby said. "A lot depends on our development during the Southern trip."

The team will open its season during Spring vacation when two seven-man units travel south to battle some of Dixie's strongest collegiate squads. Included on Harvard's schedule are such perennial dynamos as Georgia and North Carolina.

Leading Harvard's first unit will be three regulars from last year's team, which finished fourth in the Ivy League. John Levin, runner-up in singles and doubles in the 1967 New England Intercollegiates, looks like a good bet to retain his number one singles spot. Rocky Jarvis, Levin's doubles partner, and Jose Gonzalez, the team captain, appear firmly established at two and three.

Honeymoon

From here, the scramble for positions begins. Steve Devereux, who saw limited action last year, will occupy the number four slot during the Spring trip. However, hockey star, Kent Parrot, who will spend Spring vacation on his honeymoon, should move ahead of Devereux once the regular season begins.

Two other seniors who will not make the trip South, Bo Jones and squash captain Rick Sterne, could eventually slip into the starting lineup. Jones has not played competitive tennis for Harvard since his freshman year, but Barnaby trusts him to regain his old form. Two sophomores, Larry Terrell and Eric Wise, also have a chance to make the first six.

Marty Flusser, Terry Oxford, Steve Whitman, Clark Kawakami, Bill Ball, Michel Scheinmann, Mike Ezell, and Ted Wheeler (as an alternate) will make up Harvard's second unit on the Southern trip.

This year's Ivy League Championship looks like a two-team race between Princeton and Pennsylvania. Harvard should be rated a strong possibility for third, along with defending champion Yale, but it must show great improvement before challenging the top two. Harvard has one distinct advantage--it plays both Princeton and Pennsylvania at home this year.

Crack Team

The key to Harvard's performance will be the doubles. Barnaby has considered breaking up his crack team of Levin and Jarvis to experiment with new combinations. "We have always surprised the Ivy League with our doubles," Barnaby said. "Perhaps we can come up with some new teams during the Spring trip which will make us a winner."