M. Tennis Cleans Up

This weekend the Harvard men's tennis team traveled to Yale for its first invitational of the fall season. Harvard dominated the tournament despite the absence of number one seed, junior Andrew Rueb.

The Crimson swept through the tournament with at least one and sometimes two Harvard players in the finals of every division.

In singles, sophomore Todd Meringoff defeated Yale's Adam Mandell in the finals of the A flight. Sophomore Dan Chung handled teammate Sudhakar Kosaraju, 6-4, 6-2 to win the B division.

Captain Marshall Burroughs and his doubles partner Mitty Arnold won their doubles division, beating teammates Meringoff and Kosaraju, 6-2, 7-6.

The team's performance this weekend belies its ability to dominate Eastern tennis this season.

While last year was supposed to have been a rebuilding year for the Crimson, players said this season they plan to get to the NCAAs and move farther than they ever have before.

"The team will be a stronger and more mature team this year, having graduated only one senior and recruited the number one nationally ranked doubles player in the country," junior Chris Laitala said.

Laitala's doubles partner and roommate Cesar Conde said this past weekend revealed something else about the team as well.

"One of our strengths this year is that we have an increased sense of team unity, spirit and camaraderie which has been more evident in team practices and in our first tournament than in the past," Conde said.