Powerful 'Cliffe Tennis Team Scalps Big Green Squad, 6-3

Top-seeded Radcliffe tennis captain Lissa Muscatine bested her scrappy Dartmouth adversary to lead Radcliffe over Dartmouth, 6-3, in yesterday's away contest.

"They turned out to be a lot stronger than we expected," number four singles Rita Funaro said yesterday, "they had a lot of depth."

John McCarthy's racquetwomen were expected to walk away with the match, but the squad had a tough time of it because of the letdown following last Saturday's drubbing at the hands of Yale, dropping Radcliffe from the unbeaten ranks.

Second-seed Suki Magraw was over-powering, breezing to a 6-4, 6-1 win, while Rita Funaro was equally strong, taking 6-4, 6-3 sets.

Funaro admitted that the locals were not as mentally prepared as they should have been for the Big Green. "We were looking more ahead to Brown this weekend, after the Yale loss," she said.

Denise Thai and Maude Wood, playing at numbers three and five singles respectively, were not as lucky against their Big Green opponents as both racquetwomen dropped straight sets, as did Anne Kauffmann playing at six.

But true to form, the Radcliffe team swept all three doubles matches to liquidate Dartmouth.

Muscatine and Thal teamed up at number one doubles and outlasted their Big Green opponents in a grueling three set match.

Second doubles, Magraw and Funaro rolled to victory, as did the duo of Wood and Kauffmann, Radcliffe 6, Dartmouth 3.

Yesterday's win raised the racquet-women's record to 4-1, right behind undefeated Yale.