Netmen Give Hawkeyes a Black Eye, 8-1

Good teams can win games they play poorly.

And the Harvard men's tennis team is a good team.

Battling jet lag, midterm blues and rusty play, the top-seeded Crimson shot past Iowa yesterday at the UC-Irvine Tourney in Irvine, Cal.

Not reflected in the score were Harvard's second set collapses in three of the six singles matches and one of the doubles matches as well.

"I think the guys came out with a positive attitude," Harvard Coach Dave Fish said. "But they've gone through midterms and showed it today. The lack of sharpness and the cross-country travel disoriented the team."

And it showed. Iowa's Thomas Adler rebounded from a first-set defeat to win the second stanza from Mike Zimmerman in first singles action.

But the Harvard sophomore stayed neck-and-neck with his Hawkeye opponent. Each competitor held serve for the first 11 games of the fierce final frame. Then Zimmerman took charge.

"I just went out at 6-5 and took the match to him," Zimmerman said. "I broke him and came out on top."

Harvard's Mike Shyjan found himself stagnating in a similar predicament. The nation's 11th-rated singles player dominated his first set over Matt Maltby at second singles but lost his precision in the second stanza. Maltby capitalized on Shyjan's erratic service game to prevail in the middle frame, 7-5.

However, Shyjan recovered from the listless second set performance to overpower Maltby, 6-1, to capture the match.

"In the second set I didn't play as I should've played," Shyjan said. "I wasn't getting most of my first serves in. I lost track of my game in that set. But in the third set, I got down my first serves and volleys to win it."

Harvard Captain Mark Leschly rallied from a first-set deficit to bump off his Hawkeye opponent at third singles, giving Harvard a 3-0 lead in the match.

Iowa then cut the Harvard lead as Hawkeye Paul Buckingham knocked off the Crimson's Albert Chang in two sets.

Harvard sophomore Derek Brown breathed new life into the Big Crimson Machine, surrendering just two games in his entire fifth singles match to launch Harvard to a 4-1 lead.

Harvard never looked back.

The Crimson's Jon "Ba" Cardi sealed the match before the doubles teams took the court, triumphing in a three-set nailbiter over an unhappy Iowan.

Harvard continued its dominance in the unnecessary doubles play, coasting to a three-for-three sweep against the demoralized Iowa squad, led by the demolition duo of Shyjan and Zimmerman.

"Mike and I played well in doubles, holding serve. But by that point their guys were dejected, because the doubles matches didn't determine anything," said Shyjan.

Coach Fish was pleased with Harvard's performance despite the team's mistakes.

"What the team did show today was that we can recover even with the match swinging heavily against us," Fish said. "I'm pleased, very pleased, with the outcome."