M. Tennis Nears Ivy Title

The Harvard men's tennis team split a pair of matches against Yale and Brown this weekend, barely missing an opportunity to win the Ivy League championship.

The Crimson, ranked No. 43 in the country, had not lost to Yale since 1994, but the No. 60 Bulldogs ended the seven-year drought when they squeaked by Harvard Friday with a 4-3 upset.

On Sunday, Harvard returned to the Beren Tennis Center to face Brown (11-10, 3-4 Ivy). In one of the most hotly contested Ivy matches all season, the Crimson (13-8, 5-1) earned a 5-2 victory after a four-hour battle in the blistering heat.

The weekend split leaves Harvard and Columbia with one loss each in Ivy play. If the Crimson can beat Dartmouth in Hanover on Wednesday, it will win the conference due to its earlier victory over the Lions.

"There are six teams in the league capable of beating each other this year," Harvard Coach David Fish '72 said. "It's the deepest I've seen in 25 years. It's marvelous competition-but I'm going to have to get some Antacids."

Harvard 5, Brown 2

Parity proved to be in full effect on Sunday when the Bears were in town.

The day opened with the doubles matches, and the No. 2 team of junior William Lee and freshman Mark Riddell started things off for Harvard by defeating Chris Wolfe and Chris Drake, 8-4. Soon after, Crimson co-captain Anthony Barker and freshman George Turner sealed the doubles point when they defeated Nick Malone and Jamie Cerretani, 8-3. The Crimson looked to be in control.

Singles play contained only a hint of the ease with which Harvard dispatched Brown in the doubles. Riddell beat J.R. Argo, 6-1, 6-2 in under an hour at the No. 6 position.

The other matches turned into instant battles. At No. 1, Lee went down 4-1 early to Wolfe, but stormed back with four straight games to go up 5-4 in the first set.

The set went into a tiebreak, where Wolfe again went up a break early. But Lee got back to within 4-5, three points to the set. Lee could not hold his serve, however, and dropped both his service points to lose the set, 6-7 (4).

After two hours, things looked bleak for the Crimson. With the exception of Riddell, all five remaining Crimson players had dropped their first set. Harvard was up 2-0 in the match but fading.

Lee and sophomore Oli Choo then stepped up their games. Choo, who had dropped the first set, 6-4, to Cerretani, got back in the match with a 6-3 win in the second.

Lee was even more impressive. He barely missed a beat in winning the second set, 6-0, leaving Wolfe tired and out of breath.

Several minutes later the Bears got their first point in the match when Malone beat freshman Cliff Nguyen at No. 2 singles.

The momentum continued to shift to Brown when a dogfight at No. 4 singles between Barker and Drake ended with a 7-5, 6-3 win for Brown. Both players had run each other ragged and stayed focused in the swirling winds.

With the score tied at 2-2, the focus was on the matches at Nos. 1 and 3, which were both in third sets. Lee again jumped over Wolfe when he went up 3-0 to start the final set. The two then engaged in a fifteen-minute game on Wolfe's serve. Neither player could string together enough points to win the game. Wolfe's serve was inconsistent; Lee continued to dump backhands into the net. Finally Lee took advantage of some weak serves and won the game to go up 4-0.

It was only a matter of time before Lee won the set, 6-1, to put Harvard within one point of the match.

"Will has really improved his competitive composure this year," Fish said. "He knew what he wanted to do, he knew the conditions were tough and that he only lost the first set by a little bit. He just kept doing the same smart things and he was relentless."

Choo and Cerratani's third set was extremely tight, however, and both players exhibited that fact. Cerratani had broken early, but Choo had come right back. The two were on serve at 5-4 when Lee's match concluded.

Cerratani simply could not keep up on his last service game. Choo pressed the ball deep and down the middle in order to avoid the wind pushing the ball out. When Choo finally got a match point with Cerratani serving at ad-out, he took advantage of it and won the set, 6-4, to give Harvard its fourth point and the match.

Going into New Haven on Friday, the Crimson was on a roll, having beaten four straight Ivy foes. Yale hit first when it won all three doubles matches to clinch the point.

Barker and Turner found themselves on the short end of the stick first, dropping an 8-6 decision to Steve Berke and Dustin West at the No. 1 position. Junior Dalibor Snyder and freshman Chris Chiou then lost by the same score at No. 3 doubles to Scott Carleton and Ryan Coyle and Yale had the point.

The Elis continued to play well on their home courts in singles. Berke took out Lee, 6-2, 6-1 at No. 1, and Choo was not far behind, losing to Greg Royce at No. 3, 6-2, 6-2.

Nguyen was able to stop the Yale tide with a big 6-2, 6-4 win over Carleton at the No. 2 spot. However, Harvard had lost the first set in the remaining three matches.

Barker was battling David Goldman at No. 4, but lost a close first set, 7-5. Goldman then turned up the heat, and Barker was toast, losing, 6-0, in the second set to give the match to Yale.

"They just outplayed us," Fish said. "Yale had three seniors playing their last match, it was for the salvation of their season-and they played like that."

The Crimson won the remaining matches and only lost 4-3.

Harvard now faces Dartmouth at 2pm on Wednesday to conclude the Ivy League season. A win would place the Crimson in the NCAA tournament.