Netmen to Yale; Netwomen to Host Tourney

The Harvard men's and women's tennis teams both open their fall seasons this weekend. The Netmen take their rackets to New Haven for the Yale Invitational, while the Netwomen play host in the Harvard Invitational.

Both events are individual tournaments and team scores will not be kept as schools will have varying numbers of players entered. As the first competition for both Crimson squads this year, however, the results will be the first gauge of their potential for the year.

The men's Yale Invitational will feature four singles flights. While most schools have entered two players in each of the flights, the men's team has placed four players each in flight A and flight B, and two players each in flight C and flight D.

"We are really deep again this year," men's coach Dave Fish said. "I think we have the talent to be competitive in all four flights this weekend."

The flight A line-up has been set to include junior Dan Chung, sophomore Mitty Arnold and freshmen Tom Blake and Philip Tseng.

The rest of the line-up had not been determined at press time.

Missing from the Crimson starting 12 players this weekend are junior Todd Meringoff and captain Andrew Rueb.

Meringoff, the two-time defending Rolex Eastern Men's Division I Champion, is still bothered by a groin injury that ended his spring season prematurely.

Rueb suffered a knee injury last spring and also is not back at full strength.

"I'm still slowed down a bit," Rueb said. "But Todd and I are on the road to recovery."

The Crimson will also be without the services of junior Howie Kim, who injured his hand in a bicycle accident.

The line-up has been shored up, however, by the arrival of a new crop of talented freshmen. Blake and Tseng are joined by Jose Hernandez Ore and Brandon Bethea in the tennis class of '98.

Blake and Tseng, both highly ranked in the junior circuits, figure to make an immediate impact for the Crimson.

"Tom and Philip can really help us out in the top of the line-up this year," Rueb said.

"This really is some of the best talent I've seen in years," Fish said. "If the team is healthy, I would look forward to playing any team in the country."

Unfortunately, Bethea has already been bitten by the injury bug that seems to gorge on Crimson tennis players. He will have surgery to repair torn knee cartilage.

Strong competition can be expected from players on perennially-strong teams like Princeton and Columbia, as well as conference-newcomer Penn State.

The tournament, however, will serve mainly as a tune-up for the fall season and the ECAC tournament, held October 7-9.

"The Yale Invitational will let us warm up and evaluate things," Rueb said. "It doesn't really mean much in itself.

The women's Harvard Invitational tournament, held today, Saturday and Sunday at the Beren Tennis Center, will also be an open event consisting of six singles flights and three doubles flights.

The tournament includes players from Notre Dame and Tennessee, both top-25 teams nationally, as well as the Iowa and North Carolina squads.

"It should be a really good tournament," women's head coach Gordon Graham said. "We'll have a great field here."

The Crimson will be represented by two players in each of the singles flights, while the other schools will enter either one or two players.

Sophomore Gina Majmudar and freshman Mylin Torres will play the flight A singles matches for Harvard.

Majmudar won the Flight A singles tournament at the Harvard Invitational last year as a freshman. Torres was ranked as high as second in the girls 16-under division.

Like the Yale Invitational, the Harvard Invitational will have little relevance to team standings, counting only for individual rankings and personal records.

The netwomen also boast a deep, talented line-up that was strengthened not only by incoming freshmen, but also by sophomore transfer Rona Mayer.

Mayer, playing in Israel, has been ranked as high as 312th in the world, and will be a welcome addition to the squad.

At present Mayer is suffering from a sore shoulder and will only compete in doubles matches during the tournament.

The depth of the women's team was evident this week as the players went through a series of challenge matches to determine a starting line-up.

"Our challenge matches didn't resolve much since everyone was so tightly matched," co-captain Kelly Granat said. "That's good because everyone will have to keep their individual games up knowing there are so many good players behind them."

Following this tournament the Crimson will face off in a couple of dual matches against area schools before competing in the ITA Regional Team Championships.

"Our main focus this fall is to win the ITAs," Graham said. "That would give us an automatic bid to the Nationals."

Last year the Crimson lost in the finals of the ITAs to Virginia.

Both men's and women's teams have more significant tournaments in the near future. Their performances in this weekends' matches, however, should reveal just what we can expect from the Netters this fall.