'Cliffe Racquetwomen Take Tourney Muscatine, Thal Team Up for Win

The Radcliffe tennis team squeaked past Brandeis by one point to take first place in the Greater Boston Women's Intercollegiate Tennis Tournament held Sunday at the Palmer Dixon Courts.

Captain Lissa Muscatine and Denise Thal captured top laurels in the coubles competition. Brenda Schafer, a junior from Brandeis, repeated last year's performance at this tournament by winning the first place singles trophy. In the semifinals Radcliffe's Rita Funaro fell to Schafer's racket, 6-3, 6-0. Racking up the same score in the finals Schafer whipped the new addition to the Crimson squad, freshman Sally Roberts.

Seven Schools

Seven other colleges participated in the tournament with Radcliffe: Brandeis, Wellesley, MIT, B.U., B.C., Regis, and Simmons.

During the semi-finals Muscatine and Thal pounded out a resounding 6-2, 6-1 victory against their opponents from Boston College. Thal said yesterday about the match, "It was the best doubles we'd ever played together. We played out of our minds."

The Crimson pair gave up only one game in the first set of the finals and won the second set, the match and the tournament in a tiebreaker.

While Thal stayed in the backcourt and patiently volleyed the long lobs, her partner waited at the net for the put-away shot. When the ball came near her, Muscatine fired the ball back with a smashing overhead directed right at her opponent.

Right

"That's the best way to play doubles," Muscatine said yesterday. "If you hit it right at them, they can't do anything with it, but if you hit to their side they have a chance at returning it."

Muscatine said about the team's victory in the tournament, "This makes it undisputed that we're the best in the area."

The Crimson requetwomen go to Tufts on Wednesday for their first dual varsity match of the season.