Netmen Whack Green, Take Title

The Harvard men's tennis team clinched the Eastern Intercollegiate Tennis Association championship Tuesday with a decisive 6-1 victory over Ivy League rival Dartmouth at Hanover. The Crimson last took the EITA title in 1993--a title it shared with Dartmouth and Yale. Harvard  6 Dortmouth  1

As the Crimson (16-6, 8-0 EITA) took to the courts for its toughest Eastern competition of the season, there was more than just a title at stake.

First, there was the big revenge factor involved.

Two years ago, playing at Dartmouth, the Crimson lost a close 4-3 match to the Big Green--a match that was far from forgotten.

And there was another element that a few players had to cope with in the match--sibling rivalry.

For both captain Andrew Rueb and sophomore Mitty Arnold, playing an away match at Harvard could almost have been considered a "home" match.

On the Dartmouth side of the net, there was both another Rueb and another Arnold--senior Chase Arnold and freshman Avery Rueb, playing at fifth and sixth singles, respectively.

But more strikingly, there was not one, but two, Rueb/Arnold doubles dous. The Harvard team played at first doubles and the Dartmouth tandem played at third doubles, against the Crimson's phenomenal freshmen Philip Tseng and Thomas Blake.

In the end, none of the siblings came face-to-face. And considering that this match was crucial for both teams, family matters had to be forgotten for a few hours.

"The sibling thing did not play a factor at all," Tseng said. "Tom and I treated them as any other players, although Rueb was telling us what to do against his brother."

The Crimson, which is used to difficult conditions, was faced with a match far from the comforts of home. It played on relatively slow courts, in front of a fired up crowd that was looking to help the Big Green put a dent in the Crimson's season.

Although the overall score of the match implies that the Crimson steamrolled the Big Green, it was closer than the players would have liked.

The Crimson began the match on a positive note, grabbing the doubles point by winning both second and third doubles.

At first doubles, Rueb and Arnold lost to the Big Green's Jim Rich and Holden Spaht, 9-8.

Yet the Crimson proved that its recent change in the doubles line-up was beneficial as junior Todd Meringoff and sophomore Josh Hausman won, 9-7, and Blake and Tseng beat the Big Green's Arnold/Rueb duo 8-4, at second and third doubles, respectively.

Since its last match against Yale, the Crimson doubles line-up flip-flopped Hausman and Blake.

After the doubles, the Crimson went into singles action with the momentum. Although the team ultimately came through, taking five out of six matches, the matches were too close for comfort. Out of the six singles matches, four were settled in the third set, after each of the Crimson players took the opening set.

"We moved to singles with the momentum, and everyone won the first sets," Tseng said. "But then everyone seemed to fall down and break in the second sets."

Two matches were won in straight sets, as Rueb took first singles 6-4, 7-6, and junior Dan Chung defeated the younger Rueb 6-4, 7-5. At second singles, Tseng grabbed a tightly-contested 6-4, 2-6, 6-4, victory over Matt Fuller.

The lone Crimson loss came at third singles, as Arnold lost a heart-breaker to Spaht, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.