Crimson Shines at Nationals

The Harvard tennis team may not have brought home the big trophies, but it made a strong bid for being a national powerhouse this weekend.

The Crimson came close to winning it all.

Close, but no cigar.

Nevertheless, Harvard's racket wizards were on fire at the Rolex National Indoor championships in Minneapolis, Minn.--making their best showing since 1983--with freshman Erika DeLone and senior Mike Zimmerman falling only in the late rounds.

Women's team phenom DeLone charged through her draw before she was dispatched in the finals by long-time friend and national number-one Lisa Raymond.

Stanford freshman Raymond-- who is undefeated this year--took 74 minutes to beat DeLone 6-3, 6-3.

DeLone, who was not seeded in the tournament, advanced to the finals after beating Stanford's Laxmi Poruri in three grueling sets, 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-1).

Harvard Coach Dave Fish said he was extremely pleased with DeLone's performance.

"I thought it was great," Fish said. "She has shown she's capable of winning a national championship. It's a good start."

DeLone said Raymond's aggressiveness ensured her victory.

"She came into net much more than I did," DeLone explained. "She was much more aggressive and that was a deciding factor."

DeLone also said she was not playing at her best against Raymond after playing a number of tough matches to reach the finals.

"I thought it was a combination that she played extremely well and I didn't play to top of game," DeLone said. "After some close matches, I came out stiff and tired."

On the men's side, Zimmerman made it to the semifinals without losing a set, knocking off third-seeded Brian Macphie of USC and Rice's Steve Campbell along the way.

Zimmerman said the difference in his semifinal loss was simply that his opponent produced clutch shots on the big points' finals.

"He came out with some pretty big shots and some impressive top spin lobs at the right times," the Mather senior said. "It was sort of a backbreaker, coming down to a matter of a couple of points."

Zimmerman also played hot in doubles when he teamed up with Mike Shyjan to beat the second-seeded Stanford team of Flanagan/Devens in the early rounds.

But the Harvard duo, which has not played in competition for a number of months due to a Zimmerman injury, dropped to the top-seeded USC pair of McPhee and Jonathan Leach in the semifinals.

"Considering it was our first time back and we hadn't played for so long, I didn't think we had that much rust," Shyjan said. "We were playing some of the top teams in the country. I thought it was great that we got that far."

Another Harvard pair, (10th-ranked nationally) Albert Chang and Andrew Rueb, defeated USC's Lanyi/Dkvrot (third-ranked nationally), members of last year's national champion team, 7-6, 2-6, 7-6, after saving five match points against them. In the quarterfinals, Chang and Rueb lost to top-seeded Kronayge/Kruse from Ball State, who won last fall's Volvo All-American championships.

Harvard senior Mike Shyjan had a disappointing tournament in singles competition, losing in the first round and again in the first-round consolation.