Racquetmen Stick It to Columbia, 6-3

The Harvard tennis team rode the wave of momentum produced by several clutch tie-breaker victories in singles competition to gut out a 6-3 win over Columbia in their home opener at the Palmer-Dixon courts yesterday.

Freshman Dan Gerken and sophomores Kevin Shaw and Scott Walker each contributed a pair of individual victories as the Crimson avenged last year's loss to the Lions-a defeat that prevented Harvard from winning the Ivy League title outright.

Captain Danny Waldman, playing number one, opened the singles competition with a 3-6, 4-6 loss to freshman Eric Fromm, who upped his individual record for the season to 12-0.

Number three man Walker won the last three points of a first set tie-breaker against Lion Gary Adelman, and went on to take his match, 7-6, 6-3. "I was serving at 2-4," Walker said after the match, "and he just floated a couple of ground strokes."

Shaw then gave the crowd a few more ulcers, winning a pair of tie-breakers to edge Columbia's Joe Perez, 7-6, 6-3, 7-6. Down 5-4 in the third set and returning serve, Shay hit hot streak and broke Perez's service with a series of brilliant shots. "I've never hit so many good shots in one game in my life," Shaw said after the match. But he still had a few good ones in store, and he pulled them out to snag the tiebreaker, 5-3.

The Crimson did not own the copyright on winning tie-breakers, though. Columbia's number four, Jeff Silver, opened his match against Gerken with a 7-6 first-set victory. But Gerken was not about to let Silver spoil his Palmer Dixon debut and he came back to smoke the Lions, taking a pair of 6-3 sets without much trouble.

After Gerken's match, the focus of attention turned to Todd Lundy's battle against Jon Molen at number two-the best match of the day. After the two players split closely-contested 6-4 sets, Lundy came on to win-you guessed it-a third-set tie-breaker.

The Iceman Cometh

Trailing 2-4 in the third set and returning Molen's strong serve, iceman Lundy bore down to break service, then held on to force the tiebreaker at six-all. A couple of clutch shots later he took the tiebreaker, 5-2 and with it the match.

After the injured Al Bunis dropped his number six singles in straight sets, the tally stood at Harvard 4, Columbia 2, with three doubles matches remaining. The Crimson needed to take one of the three doubles contests for the victory.

The wait was not a long one. When Shaw and Walker cruised through their number two doubles match, 6-3, 6-3, it was all over but for the shouting. Harvard won the match, raised its league record to 2-0 and survived the first of three weekend matches in fine form.

Swab the Decks

Gerken and Cliff Adler mopped up with a straight-set win at number three, and Waldman-Lundy lost a close three-set match at number one, but by that it was academic.

The Lions had been tamed, and the only task left for the team was to get a little R and R before today's match against Penn. And perhaps for the crowd, there remained a quick trip to the medicine cabinet for something to calm the ulcers produced by Harvard's clutch victory in yesterday's home opener.