No Fairy Tales for Netwomen

The Harvard women's tennis team knows that happy endings exist.

Unfortunately, the Crimson hasn't found one this fall.

Harvard officially wrapped up its fall schedule with a mediocre performance at the ITCA Regional Individual Tournament at Pennsylvania this weekend which wasn't entirely its fault.

Freshman Kate Roiter lost to Lisa Shafran of George Washington University in the third round of the singles draw, 7-5, 6-1, and the doubles team of Roiter and freshman Kelly Granat fell in the first round to Cheryl Ryu and Debbie Thomas of Brown, 6-4, 6-2.

But the Crimson--which should be forever hailed as legendary in terms of injuries, sicknesses and hours in the training room--could have done much better.

Granat was a last-second replacement for injured senior Erika Elmuts and junior Co-Captain Eliza Parker, and had not played doubles with Roiter since early October.

Originally, Elmuts was slated to play singles and doubles with Roiter. But an ankle injury in practice last week blasted Elmuts' hopes of ending her last fall season on a positive note.

Parker was the alternate, but illness prevented her from practicing several days last week, and she was unable to compete at the tourney as well.

As the lone singles player representing the Crimson, Roiter "pulled out some good matches," said Coach Gordon Graham.

In the first round, Roiter had to fight off a feisty Kim Jennings of Princeton to win 6-4, 6-4. Roiter went up 5-2 in the first set and 5-0 in the second, before staving off Jennings' comeback attempts.

"I played sort of an up-and-down game," Roiter said of her first match.

"She had a hard time finishing off the win, but she was definitely in control," Graham said.

Thoughts of sweet revenge carried the Weston, Mass.-native through the second round, as she downed Boston University's Heidi Steiber, who took Roiter to a third-set tie-break earlier this season.

Roiter remembers that first encounter with Steiber well. "I pulled a stomach muscle and was forced to serve underhand," she said. "And I lost."

Not this time. Roiter swept Steiber 6-0, 6-4, playing "probably some of the best tennis she'd played all season," according to Graham.

In the round of 16, Roiter had trouble keeping her focus. She went up 4-2, and then 5-4 in the first, but couldn't hold on to take the set. The seventh-seeded Shafran took the second set in a breeze.

"I felt like I really could've won that match. I just lost momentum," Roiter said.

In doubles, Roiter and Granat never really got started and went down easily to the powerful Brown duo.

Graham said that although the pair performed well together at the Yale Invitational five weeks ago, defeating tough teams from Syracuse and Pennsylvania, they "hadn't played together since then."

"We can be a good team, but we were just kind of thrown on court together for this tournament," said Granat, who has been playing doubles with Parker for several weeks.

The freshmen duo also went on court late Friday night, after Roiter had played two singles matches and Granat had been sitting idle all day.

Graham said that Harvard's less-than-stellar fall season does not mean the year is lost.

"We've definitely found reason for optimism," the coach said. "History will repeat itself. This season reminds me so much of last fall. We had promise, but didn't fulfill expectations."

"But then we went on to have a fairy-tale Ivy season in the spring," he said, referring to the Crimson's 1992 league title.

"This winter, we're going to have to work hard and see what kind of commitment the players are willing to give to repeat that."

In other words, happy endings come only to those who really want them.