Netmen Finish 11th in Team Indoor Nationals

The Harvard men's tennis team finished in a tie for 11th at the National Indoor Intercollegiate Team Championship in Louisville, Kentucky this weekend.

The 13th-ranked Crimson (2-2 overall) in their first matches of the season, defeated number 18 Duke and upset eighth-ranked Miami, but fell to third-ranked Stanford and seventh-ranked Pepperdine.

In Friday's opening round, Harvard was paired with the Duke Blue Devils and came away with a 4-2 win.

Harvard got victories from senior Albert Chang, senior Michael Shyjan, senior Derek Brown and freshman Umesha Wallooppillai, but 15th-ranked senior Michael Zimmerman was upset by Duke's Geoff Grant, (6-3, 3-6, 6-3).

Chang, who is currently coming off an upset of Duke's 46th-ranked David Hall, 6-4, 7-5. Later that same afternoon, the Crimson almost pulled off an upset of third-ranked Stanford (5-0), losing 4-2.

Five of the six matches went three sets, including an upset by Zimmerman of Stanford's 12th-ranked Michael Flanagan (6-0, 3-6, 6-4). Harvard's Brown lost narrowly to the Cardinal's Robert Devens in the deciding match, 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-2).

The Crimson bounced back on Saturday, winning 5-4 over eight-ranked Miami (2-5).

The Crimson jumped out to a 3-0 lead behind Chang, Brown, and Rueb, but Miami fought back to tie the match at 3-3, forcing doubles. In the opening doubles match, Harvard's 10th-ranked duo of Chang and Andrew Rueb was upset by Miami's Johan Milbrink and Fredrik Perman, 9-7.

Shyjan and Zimmerman defeated Hurricanes Patrice Baker and Tonny van de Pieterman, 8-5, to set up a nail-biter between Harvard's Wallooppillai and Marshall Burroughs and Miami's Larry Angus and Daniel de Boer.

De Boer served for the entire match and had the Harvard duo at 7-6, but the Crimson broke his serve and pulled out the match in a one sided tiebreaker, 9-8 (7-1).

Later that day, in its final match of the tournament later that day, the Crimson was downed 4-2 by seventh-ranked Pepperdine (6-2).

The Waves' Howard Joffe had to come from behind to stave off an upset by Shyjan and keep the match from going into doubles play. Harvard scored wins from Wallooppillai and Rueb, but an upset of Zimmerman by Pepperdine's Charles Auffray sent the Crimson to the showers.