Racquetwomen Crushed Twice Over Weekend

Talk about lost weekends. Traveling southwards to the land of low-level radiation, the women's tennis team opened its spring season with a pair of convincing losses.

On Saturday, the University of Pennsylvania downed the Crimson, 7-2, at Levy Pavillion in Philadelphia and yesterday Princeton destroyed the visiting racquetwomen, 9-0, without even dropping a set.

Betsy Richmond, playing at first singles, and Martha Roberts, in the number two slot, managed to defeat their Penn opponents for the Crimson's only two bright spots of the weekend. Richmond knocked off Sally Zasloff 6-1, 6-3, while Roberts needed three sets to edge Jan Bernstein, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.

Richmond and Roberts were the victims of a third-set bagel job at first doubles and Meg Meyer and Kris Mertz lost their decisive set 7-5.

The duo of Libby Pierpont and Sally Roberts came closest to snaring a third point for Harvard. After Pierpont and Roberts split sets with Bernstein and Sue Silver, it all came down to double match point in a final set tiebreaker. But Bernstein cracked an ace past Roberts' forehand to end the suspense.

Coach Peter Felske blamed an "incredibly slick" composition surface for the team's poor performance at the Penn match, which was played indoors because of cold weather.

"The girls just could not adjust to the exceptionally fast surface," Felske said.

About the Princeton defeat, the less said, the better.

"It was a disappointing weekend to say the least." Felske said later, looking for a fall-out shelter.

BUSTED GUT: The Crimson tries to pick up the pieces with a match against Smith this Tuesday and Dartmouth on April 16th, both at Soldiers Field.