Netmen Fare Well At ECAC Tourney

When you're the King, there are plenty of usurpers out there ready to dethrone you. After ruling the Eastern Intercollegiate Tennis Association Championship (EITA) from 1981-'86, winning five of six titles, the Harvard men's tennis team has been knocked off by Columbia and West Virginia in each of the last two years.

At the East Coast Athletic Conference Association (ECAC) tournament at Princeton this past weekend, the Crimson showed that it is prepared to take back the crown as the best team in the East.

Harvard captured two of three doubles flights championships, while another doubles team reached the semifinals.

If you're Columbia, West Virginia or any other East Coast team, you should guard your head dearly after the Crimson turned in its second consecutive outstanding performance.

"We're back with avengance, and we're hungry," netman Roger Berry said.

"We were very excited about the tournament," Harvard Assistant Coach Steve Gerstenfeld said. "Our doubles teams came close to sweeping all three doubles."

Harvard freshmen Mike Schyjan and Albert Chang defeated Columbia's Robert Chrisberg and Soichi Nakamura, 6-3, 6-0, and Dartmouth's Matt Semler and Jeff Hawkins, 6-2, 6-2, in the "A" doubles flight. But in the semifinals, they fell to West Virginia's Brad Kelly and Joe Foley, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, the tournament's top-seed.

"Schyjan and Chang gave [Kelly and Foley] their toughest match of the tournament," Gerstenfeld said.

In the "B" doubles flight, the M&M boys, Harvard Co-Captain Mark Leschly and Mike Zimmerman, were never really tested. They cruised to straight set wins in each of their matches. In the doubles finals, Leschly and Zimmerman crushed a doubles team from Penn State, 6-3, 6-3.

Leschly and Zimmerman won all four of their matches by 6-3 scores.

In the "C" doubles flight, Harvard's Berry and John Tolmie captured the championship with four straight set wins. The duo defeated Brown's Steve Ryu and Mike Fried, 7-6 (7-5), 6-3.

To get to the finals, the Crimson duo defeated doubles teams from Boston College, 7-6 (7-5), 6-1, Princeton, 7-6 (7-2), 6-3, and Penn, 6-2, 7-5.

"We've gotten off to a real good start in doubles," Gerstenfeld said.

The Single Life

In the "A" singles flight, Leschly fell to Temple's Joe Lizardo, 6-4, 6-3. He then dropped a straight setdecision to Cornell's Ian McDonald in a consolation match.

Zimmerman opened the "A" flight with two lopsided wins, 6-4, 6-0, and 6-1, 6-0, over Dartmouth's Matt Senler and Craig Moringiello. In the round of 16, Zimmerman fell to Columbia's Jeff Chiang, 7-6 (7-5), 6-3.

Shyjan lost to Dartmouth's Todd Kjeldgaard, 6-1, 6-4 but bounced back to win his consolation match, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, over Brown's Marcia Morariu.

Also in the "A" flight, Chang lost to Cornell's Rob Bernstein, 6-4, 6-3, in the first round. In the consolation round, Chang fell to St. John's George Matus, 7-6 (7-3), 6-2.

"It's good and bad," Berry said. "We had some tough losses in the first round of singles competition. They could have been easily turned around in our favor. But it was a good first step, a good place to start from."

The "B" draw

Crimson freshman Derrick Brown lost the first set of his first two matches, but he rallied back to win both matches. He fell, however, in the third round to Princeton's Abby Boonswang, 7-6 (7-4), 7-5.

Berry opened the singles draw with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Temple's Chris Jaffert. The junior defeated Penn's Nikus Hecht, 6-4, 6-3, but dropped a tough three-setter to Lubos Kocek of West Virginia, 6-2, 1-6, 6-1.