M. Tennis Cruises At Yale Invitational

The Harvard men's tennis team started the season off in regular fashion with a thorough domination of the Yale Invitational tournament.

The tournament featured fellow Ivy League teams Dartmouth, Brown and Yale as well as Boston College, Temple and Providence. However, the competition proved irrelevant as the Crimson won every flight but one.

The tournament was comprised of six different flights, four singles flights and two doubles flights. Harvard won every one but the "B flight" in doubles, the lower of the two doubles flights.

Twelve Harvard players competed in singles competition, three in each flight.

In the top singles flight, sophomore Thomas Blake edged out teammate Mitty Arnold 4-6, 7-6, 6-2 to win the A flight.

Senior co-captain Todd Meringoff easily won the B flight 6-0 6-4. En route, he defeated team mate and fellow co-captain Josh Hausman.

Back from an injury that prevented him from playing last year, sophomore Brandon Bethea won the C flight. Freshman Mike Rich completed the Harvard sweep with his capture of the D flight.

In doubles competition, Blake along with last year's EITA Rookie of the year Philip Tseng defeated Meringoff and Arnold to win the A flight. The B flight was the only flight that escaped the Crimson in its early season domination.

Also competing for the Crimson were several freshman, among them Kunj Majmudar, whose older sister Gina plays on the women's team.

Despite the obvious success, the Crimson is still striving for improvement.

"It is an early season tournament," junior Arnold said. "We still have some kinks to get out."

At this point in the season Harvard's primary goal appears to be to build team unity that it hopes will carry over into the spring.

"Different from past years, we're not setting specific goals," Arnold said. "We are focusing on practices and trying to develop as a team."

While the spring season remains the season that counts, the Crimson is far from discrediting the fall season.

"The tournament was an opportunity to get some competitive matches in as both individuals and as a team," Meringoff said. "You can't expect to suddenly come together in the spring if you haven't played a competitive match for six months."

With its goals in mind, the Crimson seems to have started the season off in the right direction. Come spring time it should be more than ready to improve on its 17-7 overall record of a year ago.