Captains Serve Up Winners

Beneath every championship team, there is a solid foundation of experience.

Junior co-captains Kelly Granat and Kate Roiter are the supporting columns of the Harvard women's tennis team, which captured the Ivy League crown Wednesday.

Granat, an English concentrator from Roslyn, N.Y., is a smart doubles player and boasts a stellar all-court game. Roiter--an especially quick player with an effective net attack--is a psychology concentrator from nearby Weston, Mass.

Both were undefeated in Ivy League play.

How did these two pillars of Harvard tennis get their starts?

From early on, Granat knew that she was destined to play collegiate tennis:

"I wanted to play tennis since I had grown up around the game," Granat says.

Granat's decision to attend Harvard was as natural as her affinity for the court.

"I knew that I had always wanted to go to an Ivy League school, and when a Harvard recruiter was my first contact--I knew that I was going," Granat says.

Roiter's decision to continue her tennis career, however, was not so easy.

"I had played soccer all my life," Roiter says. "It was extremely difficult to pick between the two sports."

Unlike Granat, Roiter did not have her sights set exclusively on Harvard--or an Ivy League school, either.

"Harvard, believe it or not, was one of the last places I originally considered--since I live only 20 minutes away," Roiter says. "Also, it was tempting for me to accept a scholarship at a school further away from home."

However, Roiter gave into her academic pursuits--the informed choice--and stayed in Cambridge.

Although she misses the team aspect of soccer, Roiter sayss that the women's tennis squad certainly has team camaraderie.

"Probably my finest memories from tennis so far have been just being on the team and with the people--especially on the road trips," Roiter says.

The team side is certainly something Granat has come to appreciate at Harvard, compared to the lack of the team aspect during her youth career.

"In junior tennis, everything is geared towards the individual," Granat says. "Now my own mentality is different--it's more of a team effort, and I'm no longer in it for the glory."

And as members of the team, Roiter and Granat suffer together through the not-so-cheery aspect of the sport--the commitment.

"The unpleasant thing about tennis is the fact that it is a full-year sport and the time commitment is huge," Granat says. "The stretch between Thanksgiving and Christmas is really our only break."

"I've always had plenty of time to do other things besides tennis," Roiter says. "The hardest part [about tennis] is not being able to participate in the many activities that Harvard offers."

Granat contends that balancing the time constraint of tennis with that of academic demands can sometimes jeopardize one's individual performance.

"When you play in a match, you are rarely performing at your best because of the fatigue from school and practice," Granat says.

Despite the adversity, the two Crimson women always come out on top.

"Our unofficial team motto is `find a way to win,' and I'm sort of the champion of that motto," Granat says.

Coming off a wrist injury which benched her for the winter, Roiter has also found a way to win.

How do they do it?

Harvard education, no doubt.

"Although I feel that I am weaker as a technical player [than in junior league], I am smarter on the court--and this makes me a solid and reliable player for the team," Granat says.

"I've learned from experience playing at Harvard not to look ahead and to focus only on the upcoming match--I can teach this to the freshmen as well," Roiter says.

As seasoned veterans, both Granat and Roiter certainly add a pivotal dimension to the very young team--experience.

Granat feels that experience is her primary contribution to the Crimson line-up.

"Being one of the oldest, I think that I'm able to teach the younger players to be more flexible and adaptive," Granat says.

Roiter feels that her role as an elder co-captain helps her teammates to adapt as well--particularly to the game pressure.

"Just because of the fact that I'm generally an up-beat person, I think that I can help others deal with the pressures--especially the younger players," Roiter says.

"I think I'm able to get [the team] psyched-up before matches and help people cheer up if they are upset afterwards," she adds.

Upset is the emotion that the two felt after last year's loss to Dartmouth at the end of the season.

"Last year's [Dartmouth] loss has been the most upsetting experience in my tennis career to this point in time," Granat says. "Even though I played the best match of my college career, the team's loss was devastating for me."

Fortunately, Roiter did not have to cheer anyone up after Wednesday's victory against Dartmouth, which clinched the Ivy League crown for the women's team.

"It felt so good to win--especially since it was against Dartmouth in the final match," Roiter says.

"I think that the win was particularly exciting for me--I've watched the team grow over the past seasons and build itself into a championship team," Granat says.

Obviously, the Crimson has followed the example set by its co-captains--it found a way to win on Wednesday.