Courtmen Fall to Princeton, 6-3

Over-taxed by Friday's strenuous victory over Columbia, the tennis team was unequal to the task of pulling two upsets in as many days and lost Saturday's match at Princeton, 6-3.

The turning point of the match was when rain and snow moved the doubles contest indoors. Even though Harvard lost two close singles matches. it still managed a three-three split in singles. But on the hard indoor surface, Princeton's power game took complete control and swept all three doubles matches.

"Princeton has good doubles, anyway, but playing outside they would have had trouble beating us," captain Bill Washauer said. "They are a powerful team, and on hard courts the big serve and aggressive net game is very hard to beat."

Joe Cavanagh was sensational at second singles. After losing the first set, he reeled off twelve straight games to demolish Princeton's highly-rated sophomore Harold Rabinovitz, 4-6, 6-0, 6-0.

Bill Colson had little trouble with Washauer at first singles, winning 6-1, 6-0. But at number four Randy Barnett was back on his game and beat Mike Shapiro, 6-1, 6-4. Bill Brock turned in another tremendous performance to defeat Scott Rogers at five, 6-2, 6-4.

It looked as if Harvard would win the match with the singles, but both the close matches went the wrong way. Dave Fish lost to Jim Bright in a third set tie-breaker, 6-3, 2-6, 7-6, and Tim Loring lost to Mike Shapiro, 7-6, 6-4.

In doubles, Colson and Rogers beat Cavanagh, 6-4, 6-4. Peter Briggs and Randy Barnett lost to Rabinovitz and Bright, 6-4, 6-2. And Steve Olen and Rick Weir completed the Princeton sweep by taking Washauer and Loring, 6-4, 6-2.

Along with Cavanagh, Brock at fifth singles was the outstanding performer of the weekend matches. His victory at Columbia was the turning point of

that match, and his victory at Princeton kept Harvard in the match going into the doubles. Like all modest athletes, he attributed his success to his coach, Jack Barnaby.

"I usually play a defensive game from the baseline, and all season Jack has been working on my approach shots so that I can get to net and utilize my overhead," Brock said.

"This aggressive strategy hadn't been working for me in the last couple of matches, but when I was down at Columbia, 7-6 and 4-2 in the second set, I knew it was my only hope."

The tactical switch yielded quick results as Brock took 11 of the next 13 games to win the match, 6-7, 7-5, 6-1. At Princeton, Barnaby told Brock to get into Rogers right away before he got his big serve going. Brock went to the net right away, broke Rogers's serve in the first game, and breezed to victory.

Despite the loss to Princeton, Harvard's prospects for sharing the EITA. crown are still pretty good. Bobby Odaiz, Columbia's top player will be back in action, and the Lions will have the home court advantage when they play Princeton on May 6.

The Crimson travels again this weekend. playing Cornell on Friday, and Army on Saturday.