M. Tennis To Host ECACs

A new scoring system along with a strong Harvard team should make for an exciting Columubus Day weekend of tennis at the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) men’s tennis championships, to be held at the Beren Tennis Center starting today.

Harvard, seeded first, will face stiff competition in what has been deemed one of the deepest pools in recent history. Brown, Princeton and Yale, the second, third and fourth seeds, respectively, are bringing particularly strong squads to the 16-team tournament.

The Crimson take on Marist this afternoon at 1 p.m. in its first-round match.

Yale, in Harvard’s half of the draw, is bringing Steve Berke, the No. 1 singles player in the region and a strong NCAA contender.

Princeton senior Judson Williams is coming off winning the Farnsworth/Princeton intivitational against his teammate, junior Darren Joe.

Each team brings eight players to the tourney. The first round consists of three doubles matches and six singles matches. Whoever wins two out of three doubles matches earns one point, while each singles match is worth one point. The team to win four out of seven points advances to the second half.

All of the teams are bringing out their best, leaving the tournament wide-open.

“Anyone can win this tournament,” Harvard assistant coach Peter Mandeau said. “If that weren’t true, then we could just phone in the results based on the seedings right now.”

Use of the new Collegiate Game Scoring (CGS) should make the tournament even more exciting. Under CGS, or One-Ad, games are won when four points are reached by a margin of two. At 3-3, a team can win at 5-3 or 5-4. The receiver of the ninth point can choose the side.

Along with new scoring, spectators can observe some new Crimson talent in freshmen Jonathan Chu and Brian Wan. Chu teamed up with the team’s lone junior, Oliver Choo to defeat No. 34- ranked Notre Dame last week, after winning the Harvard invitiational two weeks ago. Wan, who was ranked No. 19 in under-18 juniors in 2001, is the cousin of professional tennis player Michael Chang.

Along with the freshmen, Harvard veterans look to be extremely competitive. Senior and team co-captain William Lee is expected to be Harvard’s No 1. Lee defeated some nationally ranked opponents last season. Along with Lee, Choo, Chu and Wan, Harvard is expected to play sophomores Chris Chiou, George Turner, Mark Ridell and Cliff Nguyen.

Co-captain Dalibor Snyder is confident in his team’s ability.

“We respect each team in the draw, but fear none of them, and look forward to a good weekend of competition against these teams on our home courts,” Snyder said. “If we focus on the patterns and tactics we’ve been working on for the past four weeks and prepare well mentally, we are confident that the outcome will take care of itself.”

If the outcome does indeed take care of itself, Harvard will earn more than mere bragging rights. The winner of the ECAC gets a berth at the ITA National Team Indoor championships in Louisville this February.

The quarterfinals will be held on Saturday, with the semifinal round on Sunday. Monday will feature the championship game.