Netmen Sweep Temple, W. Virginia in Openers

The Harvard men's tennis team opened its spring season this past weekend with a pair of convincing wins at the Palmer Dixon Indoor Courts.

Harvard (now 2-0 EITA) topped West Virginia, 7-2, and then blanked Temple, 9-0, for the second straight year.

Overall, the singles contingency captured 11 of 12 matches, dropping but three sets in the process.

Harvard Co-Captain Paul Palandjian knocked off Joby Foley, West Virginia's number-two player, 6-4, 6-0. Palandjian played near- perfect service games while taking advantage of Foley's own errant serves to win.

Meanwhile, Harvard's other co-captain, Bill Stanley, drew a tough match with West Virginia freshman Paul Mancini.

Stanley responded to Mancini's fast forehand drives with topspin, but as the match wore on Mancini started to put shots past Stanley. Stanley surged a bit, closing out the third game of the final set with two impressive passing shots.

Momentum shifted wildly as the players traded service breaks in the fifth, sixth, and seventh games, but Mancini took the third and final set, 6-3.

The doubles contingent also played well, highlighted by two convincing victories by the number-one doubles tandem of Peter Palandjian and Arkie Engle, who dusted off Temple, 6-0, 6-3.

Dominance

Combining power, technique and speed Engle and Palandjian continually caused their opponents confusion and frustration, stringing together a series of sharp volleys, soft drop shots and effective lobs.

Although Harvard used four different combinations for the number-two and number-three teams this weekend, the future of the number-one pair seems certain. "We're the one combination that has stayed together [since the fall season]," Engle said.