Men's Tennis On a Roll While the Women Struggle to Find Win

Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead scored their only top-ten hit with the phrase, "every silver lining's got a touch of grey."

For Harvard tennis, the silver lining is the men's outstanding season. The undefeated men rolled over Brown at the Beren Tennis Center Saturday, 7-0, setting up a Tuesday match with undefeated Dartmouth.

The women are the touch of grey. In fact, this weekend's two road losses--an 8-1 loss to William and Mary on Saturday and a 7-2 loss to Yale on Friday--have turned the Crimson women blue.

Top-Ranked Opponents

The loss in Princeton, N.J. to William and Mary was actually closer than it appears on paper. William and Mary is one of the top-ranked teams in the East, and "every match was tight," according to Co-Captain Eliza Parker.

The women garnered their only point in the match on a singles triumph by sophomore Agata Passent, but Harvard had a few chances to make the score more respectable.

The best chance to win a point came with the top doubles team of freshman Kate Roiter and Co-Captain Melissa McNabb on the court. Roiter and McNabb won their first set 9-6, lost the second 6-0 and were up 5-3 in the third before finally losing, 8-6.

"We played really well, but our serves weren't going too well," said Roiter.

The doubles teams of freshman Kelly Granat and sophomore Kendra Harris as well as Parker and Passant both lost their matches.

Roiter and McNabb withdrew after the doubles competition due to illness, and that meant Parker--normally the team's third player but bumped up to first by the withdrawals--had to face Katrin Guenther, ranked 24th in the nation.

But Parker hung in and lost to Guenther just 7-6 in the first set and in a 6-4 tie-breaker in the second.

"I was really relaxed because I knew she was really good. I worked off her errors," Parker said.

Overall the match was a decent showing against a tough team.

"A lot of matches could have gone either way," Roiter said. "I think we'll do well against them next year."

Blues Power

The Harvard women had been looking toward Friday's Yale match ever since their loss to Princeton in early April.

"We really wanted to beat them," Parker said.

Emotion carried the Crimson through the doubles matches. Parker and Passant beat their opponents 6-4, 6-7, 7-6 (the last two sets in tie-breakers) and McNabb and Katy Harber also won in three sets.

Harvard was up 2-1, but then Yale asserted itself.

McNabb and Roiter both pulled out of the singles line-up, moving everyone up two places. That, combined with rain which moved the match inside, were enough to prevent any further victories.

"Yale just beat us straight down," said Parker.

"It's been a rough season," said Granat. "We've had our ups and downs."

The Men

Playing at home against an easy opponent, the men walloped a passive Brown team 7-0.

The first point against Brown was scored with the near-perfect victories of all three Harvard doubles teams. The first doubles team of sophomores Andrew Rueb and Umesha Wallooppillai won 8-2 and the other two teams won 8-0.

"It was the worst beating we gave all year," Rueb said.

After the doubles demolition derby, Rueb and Wallooppillai decided to rest during the singles. Junior Marshall Burroughs played first singles and beat his opponent 6-0, 6-3.

"He played into my groove. The way he played gave me a lot of confidence," said Burroughs.

Meringoff won in the second singles slot 6-2, 6-3, and the victories continued on down the line, with freshman Daniel Chung, freshman Howard Kim, and juniors Chris Laitala and Sudhakar Kosaraju all winning by comfortable margins.

The men have had a tremendously strong undefeated season this year, and coming off the Friday 7-0 trouncing of a supposedly tough Yale it seems that Brown was even easier fare.

"We expected to win," said Burroughs, "but we didn't want to take them for granted. I obviously didn't expect [so strong a victory]."

"It's over," said Rueb. "It was a nice day, people got tanned, and now we're playing Dartmouth."

Dartmouth

Both men and women's teams are now facing Dartmouth, the men on Tuesday and the women Wednesday.

After an "up" against William and Mary and a "down" against Yale, the women are eager to beat Dartmouth--a top team in the Ivies, according to Granat.

"Beating them would be a good way to end the season," she said.

The men will "try to play aggressively, and not dwell on the fact that they have no losses," Burroughs said.

"We're going to put it in high gear, come on and play like we've done all year, and I think we'll be okay," Rueb said.

'It's over. It was a nice day, people got tanned, and now we're playing Dartmouth.' Andrew Rueb