Radcliffe Pair Takes Doubles Championship

The Radcliffe doubles team of Claire Stuart and Meg Morgan surprised a field of 16 entries and bagged the doubles title in the 1972 Seven Sisters Tennis Tournament held at Wellesley May 6 and 7.

The tournament drew eight schools--the "sisters" Radcliffe, Vassar, Barnard, Wellesley, Mt. Holyoke, and the "brothers" Yale, Cornell, and Brown. Each fielded two singles and two doubles entries.

Stuart and Morgan, seeded at number three, disposed of Barnard's Harris and Fried, 6-4, 6-2 in first round action. Following was a series of what coach Perla Hewes termed "some of the most suspenseful tennis moments I have ever witnessed."

Against the Vassar team of Gerrity and Rasmussen, Stuart and Morgan had to win the second set in a tie-breaker, 7-6, after having handily won the first set, 6-3. In the semi-finals match, the 'Cliffe team took on the top-seeded duo of Havemeyer and Straus of Yale. The match lasted nearly two and a half hours, with the Cliffies scoring an upset victory, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6.

In the finals, Stuart and Morgan faced another Yale team, the unseeded Auchincloss and Mercer, which had upset a second-seeded Mt. Holyoke team earlier in the competition. The Cliffies had to come from behind in both sets (3-5, 1-5) before pulling out a hair-raising 7-5, 7-6 match.

As if this wasn't enough action, Radcliffe number one singles player Joy Skon was putting on a show of her own. She beat Jan Falk of Barnard in the first round, 7-6, 6-1, and in a three hour second-round match, she upset fourth-seeded Julia Barash of Cornell, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. In the semis, Joy was beaten by the top-seeded entry from Yale, defending champion Lisa Rosenblum, 6-4, 6-3.

The other 'Cliffe entries lost their first-round matches. Number two singles Jill Robertson, whom coach Hewes calls the most improved singles player, lost to third-seeded Nancy Lewis of Barnard, 6-1, 6-4. The number two doubles entry of Kathy Agoos and Ingrid Sarapuu bowed to the number two-seeded Dignan-Tomaso tandem from Mt. Holyoke, 6-1, 7-5.

Coach Hewes feels that the team as a whole shows a lot of promise. "I just wish the weather had been a bit more cooperative this spring. All those washed-out matches would have been a great way for the girls to gain more experience."