Racquetmen Roll Over Army, Destroy Cornell; Top Three Players Prepare for Prentice Cup

The men's tennis team lost only one match during the weekend as it scored impressive victories over Army and Cornell and ended its season in third place in the Eastern League, behind Princeton and Yale.

"We knew we could beat these teams," coach Dave Fish said yesterday. "We really didn't have too much to worry about."

Friday afternoon the racquetmen easily blasted Army's arsenal and came up on the right end of an 8-1 win. The Cadets managed to take single sets at number one and number two but fell short in both encounters.

Don Pompan, playing number one instead of convalescing captain Todd Lundy, prevailed in his match, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2. At number two, Andy Chaikovsky took Rusty Struble, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.

Annihilation

But the most impressive victory of the weekend came at number three as Scott Walker searched and destroyed Kevin Williams, 6-0, 6-0. "I started out really fast and he never got rolling," Walker said yesterday of his double-bagel win.

The only loss of the weekend was number four Kevin Shaw's loss to Mark Conroe, 6-3, 6-4. However, the Crimson took the remaining matches, dropping only one set at first doubles, as the team of Shaw and Bob Horn took Hammond and Struble, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2.

But if the invasion of Army was easy to repel, the landing of the Big Red was a real cake walk. The Crimson lost only one set Saturday afternoon as Harvard put down the Lake Cayouga revelers, 9-0.

Pompan kept up Harvard's winning ways, downing Mike Matheis, 6-1, 6-4. Walker, playing at number two after having beaten Chaikovsky in a challenge match earlier in the day, took Cornell's John Engalnder, 7-5, 6-3.

The challenge match in which Walker beat Chaikovsky also decided which player would go to England to represent Harvard in the Prentice Cup. The Prentice Cup pits the top three players from Harvard and Yale against a comparable team from Oxford and Cambridge.

Walker and Chaikovsky had split their two previous challenge matches. "Chaik and I are exactly even," Walker said yesterday. "I just happened to get lucky."

Ironically, after his loss to Walker in the morning, Chaikovsky played Cornell's number three, who is also named Scott Walker. This time Chaikovsky prevailed, 6-2, 6-0.

Shaw came back from his loss to Army with a convincing 6-2, 6-0 win over Keith Usisker. Horn, at number five, was the only Crimson to lose a set, dropping the first stanza 5-7 before coming back to win, 6-4, 6-3.

No Mercy

Greg Kirsch showed Cornell's Jon Croll no mercy as he stroked his way to a breadstick, bagel cinch. In the doubles the Crimson perpetuated its dominance, winning all three matches with ease.

Todd Lundy, who will head the Crimson's Prentice Cup team, is "pretty definitely going to be invited" to the NCAA tennis championships later this month in Athens, George, Fish said. Last year, Lundy lost in the first round after having to play a match on the same day as he had taken an exam.

The other Harvard representatives to the Prentice Cup competition are Pompan and Walker.

The Prentice Cup trip sends the Harvard-Yale contingent to England for seven weeks, paying all expenses for the players. "It's probably the most exciting trip in college tennis," Fish, who placed in the competition in 1970, said. "It was like a fairy tale."