Netwomen Gain Third Place at Ivies

It was nothing to write home about, but the Harvard women's tennis team finished its 1979 season with a respectable-enough third-place finish at the Ivy League Championships, this weekend on the Smith courts in Northampton, Mass.

Fourth-seeded freshman dynamo Betsy Richmond rebounded from a first-round loss to Yale's nationally ranked number two player, Cathy Dalton, 6-1, 4-6, 6-3, to claim a consolation round quartet of wins and the fourth spot overall for the tourney.

Richmond's consolation win, 6-2, 6-2, over teammate Martha Roberts, combined with some excellent Harvard doubles play, helped the netwomen to an 11-point total, five points behind Yale and 15 points behind tourney-winning Princeton.

"I didn't play a smart match [against Dalton]," Richmond said yesterday. "She didn't let me get my timing."

Fight to the Top

Princeton's Debbie Campbell, the tourney's top seed, cruised to the title with a 6-1, 6-3 win over teammate Susie Replogle. Campbell topped Dalton in the semis while Replogle advanced by forfeit against Yale's Natalya Smith.

The unseeded Crimson doubles pair of Libby Pierpont and Sally Roberts sparkled en route to a semi-final confrontation with top-seeded Tiger duo, Kris Kinney and Anne Renfrew. In what Crimson coach Peter Felske described as a closer match than the score indicates, Roberts and Pierpont succumbed, 6-2, 6-3.

Harvard's Abby Meiselman and Leslie Miller, playing together for the first time, took the consolation route after an opening-round loss to the Princeton number two team. The Crimson team lost in the finals to the fourth-seeded Yale pair (who Roberts and Pierpont beat, 6-4, 7-5, in the first round), 6-0, 6-2. The Eli pair dominated net play and kept Harvard from ever getting into the match.

Opening Shock

In her pre-consolation effort, Martha Roberts dropped a lethargic opener to Dartmouth's Allison Hibbert, 6-0, 6-3.

Felske said yesterday he was pleased with the doubles teams, who "came through" with a fine, end-of-season effort. He called the results "positive" because "we finished ahead of Dartmouth for the first time."

BUSTED GUT: Senior Sally Roberts ended her varsity career with the weekend matches, going out in fine style. "Sally reaffirmed her ability as a doubles player," Felske said after the tournament...Though the team season ended in Northampton, Felske said he may enter Richmond and Martha Roberts in the Eastern Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (EAIAW) Regional Qualifying tournament (May 18, 19 at Yale). It ali depends on the players "school pressures," Felske said.