Tennis: Cautious Optimism

Jack Barnaby has quite a racket going. Last week he exchanged the one labeled squash for the one under the heading of tennis, and in so doing, with all due apologies to robins and dandelions, he ushered in yet another spring to Cambridge.

When Barnaby last discarded his tennis apparel, he did so with a bit of chagrin. The 1974 Harvard tennis team had not lived up to his preseason expectations, finishing fourth in the Ivy League, but Barnaby's inclinations were to blame neither the team nor its schedule. Instead, the godfather of catgut vent his wrath in the direction of God. And with good reason.

Here were the Crimson racquetmen, 4-2 on a southern swing, and, in the words of their mentor, "beating up their lesser opponents" upon their return north. Everything seemed to be falling into place, as Harvard prepared for its matches with the class of the Ivies, Columbia, Penn and Princeton. Then lightening, in the form of divine intervention of a negative sort, struck.

On the Wednesday preceding the Columbia-Penn weekend, half the team came down with the flu. "It was an act of God," declared Barnaby. "We were decimated. It was like throwing a rock into a mess of crockery."

Thus, while, in Barnaby's words, "the spirit was willing but the flesh was weak," so also was the team's performance. Columbia and Penn scored easy victories, and Harvard's title aspirations went up in smoke.

The Crimson had one last shot at redemption, as it opposed Ivy leader Princeton and its 23-match winning streak. Harvard came close, and, according to Barnaby, "scared the hell out of them." But alas, in what symbolized this hard-luck year, the Crimson fell, 5-4, on a tie-breaker in the last match.

"I thought we had a good team," said Barnaby, "but we were wiped out by fate and by our luck with those damned illnesses."

After his experience with the powers that be, Barnaby speaks of his current team's chances for success with cautious optimism. "We could be a formidable team, a strong contender,:" he said. "Princeton, with a strong top tea, should be the team to beat. Columbia and Penn are also strong. We have some good players, though. I would say we should be in a real challenge for second, with an outside chance to beat Princeton."

The "good players" to whom Barnaby refers are captain John Ingard, Gary Reiner, Hugh Hyde, and Todd Lundy. These four should comprise the Crimson's top four racquetmen, and while the final positions are not yet set, as, in Barnaby's words. "the players are beating each other back and forth in playoffs," it is likely that Chip Baird, John Horne, and Jim Levi will round out the varsity squad, Out of this seven, six will be chosen to play singles in regular competition.

These positions are by no means permanent, as any one of a number of players currently listed on the J.V. squad, including Dan Waldman, Cliff Adler, Karl Kravitz and Sandy Wilson, may move up to the varsity before the season is over.

The tennis team opens its schedule with a seven match southern trip in seven days. The journey commences on the 29th of March against Georigia Tech, and features contests with Clemson. University of Georgia, South Carolina. Presbyterian College, Furman, and North Carolina. All of these schools will have about 15 matches under their belts before they meet Harvard.

"We go South to get rid of our faults," said Barnaby. "We're always unseasoned and inconsistent, and lacking form."

By the time the team heads back to Cambridge following vacation, it will have presumably ironed out its faults and be ready to average last year's Ivy injustices. Assuming, that is, that God complies.