M., W. Tennis Hit Hard

Fatigue finally hit the Harvard men's tennis team after weeks of cross-country barnstorming, while the women's team opened its team season with a disappointing showing in the ECAC tournament in Princeton.

Harvard Men

The men closed out the fall season with the Harvard Fall Invitational, an Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) individual event held across the river at the Murr Center.

Facing players from Bowling Green, Rutgers, Colorado and MIT, the Crimson looked tired and worn out from last Monday's comeback victory in the ECAC tournament against Columbia. With nine Harvard players spread out among three different flights, the results were less than solid considering the opponents' abilities.

Co-captain Joe Green reached the finals of the "A" flight after two tough three-set victories over players from Colorado and Bowling Green. His finals opponent, the Buffalo's Maciej Dilaj, was the pleasant surprise of the tournament, beating Crimson sophomore William Lee, the No. 4 seed and top seed Artur Rusiecki of Colorado to get to the championship match.

Green started off strong in the first set, staying on pace with Dilaj from the baseline and making well-placed first volleys. However, with the score 3-3, Green's groundstrokes started finding the net and the doubles alley more and more. Dilaj broke and served for the set, up 5-4.

The Crimson senior fought off a set point and was able to stay in the match as Dilaj began to spray his shots wide. It wasn't enough. Dilaj rebroke at took the set 7-5.

With Green's concentration lost, and fatigue setting in, Dilaj began a barrage of deep, hard forehands that kept Green off-balance. Dilaj ran off with the set, 6-3, and the title.

"We were just tired after the ECAC's," said Green after the match. "I worked hard, but lost my focus. [Dilaj] had a strong forehand which I couldn't catch up to."

None of Green's teammates faired well either. Sophomore Dalibor Snyder, playing in his first collegiate tournament since last season, made the finals of the "C" flight before bowing out to Rutgers' Joe Muscatiello 6-4, 6-3. A shoulder injury had kept Snyder sidelined for the fall.

Junior Andrew Styperek lost in the first round of the "A" flight, but came back to win the consolation backdraw against Marjtin Olthof of Rutgers 6-3, 5-7, 6-3. Anthony Barker, also a junior, lost in the early rounds of the "B" flight, but won the "B" consolation tournament in a hard-fought three set match, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 against Bowling Green's Nicolas Lopez-Acevedo.

The Fall Invitational closes out the men's fall season and marks the beginning of a much-needed three-week rest. The Crimson will not play until the ITA Regionals at Princeton in November.

Harvard Women

As the top seed in the ECAC Division I Women's Invitational Tennis

Championships this weekend at Princeton, the Harvard women's tennis team was expected to bring home the gold.

But Princeton, with its first win in team competition over Harvard since 1994, stole the limelight and stopped the Crimson in Saturday's semifinal.

Harvard coasted over Brown with a 5-0 opening-round win on Friday.

The Crimson won its first five singles matches, moving it quickly into the quarterfinal. Scoring was based on a nine-point system (six for singles, three for doubles), and the match was stopped after Harvard notched five points.

Senior captain Vedica Jain started the Crimson domination off strongly with a quick win at No. 1 singles. Following suit was the freshman tandem of Sanja Bajin and Nive Jerath, who also picked up wins for Harvard.

Sophomore mainstays Andrea Magyera and Fleur Broughton capped off the fourth and fifth points for the Crimson, quickly eliminating the Bears.

"Brown was a great way to start off the competition," junior

Sanaz Ghazal said. "We made quite a statement with beating Brown 5-0, and we were pretty happy with that."

Ghazal did not compete in first-round competition due to a minor shoulder injury.

"I wanted to save my shoulder for later," Ghazal said. "It was mainly a preventative thing."

The Crimson faced off against Syracuse in the quarterfinals, easily defeating the Orangemen 6-3.

Syracuse, seeded No. 6 in the competition, started strongly against Harvard. The Orangemen's Shareen Lai defeated Jain at No.1 singles in three sets.

Harvard overcame the one-point deficit by winning the next four matches. Bajin, Jerath, Magyera, and Ghazal all easily defeated their opponents, bringing the Crimson tally to 4-1.

Broughton was unable to notch the fifth point for Harvard, as Syracuse's Katie Thompson defeated her.

The Orangemen stole their third and final point in No. 1 doubles, as

Anna Khvalina and Lai defeated Magyera and Bajin. But the Crimson rebounded, taking the final two matches. Jain and Ghazal took No. 2 doubles, and Sarah McGinty and Broughton rounded out the match with a victory in No. 3 doubles.

"Syracuse was a good, solid match," Ghazal said. "They were great competition, but we stuck to our game plan. There were a couple of close matches and we fought hard."

But two strong victories weren't enough to propel the Crimson over the Tigers in the semifinal.

Harvard fought valiantly but could not overcome No. 3 Princeton, as the Tigers took the match 5-4.

Entering the doubles matches, Princeton was ahead 4-2, needing only one more match point to move on to the final round. The deciding factor was No. 1 doubles, as Bajin and Magyera were unable to hang on, falling to Princeton's Amanda Hastings-Phillips and Gailer Large.

The Crimson defeated Princeton in No. 2 and 3 singles, as both

Bajin and Jerath picked up the wins.

"Princeton was a little bit of a disappointment, but it's only going to motivate us," Ghazal said. "We're looking forward to the Ivies at the end of the season and hopefully we'll get revenge in the spring."