Tennis Teams Thrash Penn, Columbia

In an impressive weekend for Harvard tennis, the men and women both swept Columbia and Penn in the start of regional play.

After crushing Columbia at home on Friday, 7-0 the women continued their dominating play beating Penn 6-1 Saturday.

The men shared similar success on the road, beating Columbia on Friday 6-1 and blanking Penn on Saturday.

Penn really never had a chance against the Crimson women (2-0 Ivy). The Quakers' one ray of hope came when co-captain Kate Roiter lost her match out of the number-three slot, but strong play from Ivy Wang and Gina Majmudar out of the first and second spots respectively carried the Crimson to a near-flawless victory.

"We had the intensity and got psyched up for it," Wang said. "We didn't want to play at a lower level even though we knew that Penn wasn't as strong as some of the teams we played over spring break."

The women have a big weekend ahead of them, as they square off against last year's best East team, William and Mary.

"I think this year we have a chance to beat them," Wang said.

The men (2-0 Ivy) were unstoppable this weekend, even outside the confines of comfortable Beren Tennis Center.

"I thought overall the weekend couldn't have gone any better," sophomore Philip Tseng said. "We practiced real hard and wanted to do well in regional matches."

Friday was an exciting day of tennis for the Crimson. Despite a Tom Blake third set tie-break loss to the Lions' Kevin Chang (6-0, 2-6, 6-7), Harvard rallied to dominate Columbia.

Anchored by solid play out of the number two and three slots, the Crimson steam-rolled the weaker Lions in a prelude to Saturday's crushing of rival Penn.

Blake's loss raised the level of play of the Crimson, as the sick and fatigued Blake almost pulled out the victory.

"Tommy [Blake] hung in there long enough to get Mitty [Arnold] going," co-captain Todd Meringoff said.

Friday's match was especially important for the Crimson, since Columbia is the only regional team to play it's home matches on clay.

Harvard's biggest rival in the region, Princeton, failed to exorcise the clay demons earlier in the year, but the Lions' home court advantage was not enough to phase the Crimson.

"We prepared better this year than two years ago," Meringoff said.

Practicing on clay in downtown Boston last week was certainly a factor in Harvard's newfound clay success.

Coming off Friday's victory, the men were careful not to take Penn too lightly.

"Our biggest problem all season has been beating good teams and then losing to not-so-good teams," Meringoff said.

But the men could do no wrong Saturday as they rode the previous day's momentum to a 7-0 blanking of the Quakers.

After such success on the clay, shutting out Penn on the good ol' fashioned hard stuff was a breeze.

Meringoff and Arnold were solid out of the number one and two positions.

The rest of the team also enjoyed great success against Penn. In fact, the only Harvard setback on the day was a third-round doubles loss that ultimately did not contribute to the final score.

"We expect to win," Tseng said. "But we're trying to improve our game for the NCAA's."

Although regional play has just begun, the Crimson is well on its way to qualifying for nationals.

And with a key matchup this Friday against Princeton, it's time to show it.