Racquetmen Burn Hapless Quakers...

The racquetmen bounced back from their disappointing loss to Princeton almost two weeks ago, and convincingly defeated perennial dark horse UPenn 6-3 yesterday at Hemenway and set their sights on the National Amateur Championships which will begin Saturday in Boston.

Once again, the Crimson's top gun, Mike Desaulniers, made it all look easy. Opponent Ned Edwards could not take advantage of his strength as Desaulniers showed that power succumbs to finesse.

Desaulniers, who won the Canadian national Amateur Individual Championship just last weekend, seemed to be toying with the Quaker as he ran Edwards all around the court.

Edwards never really got into the match. He made too many unforced errors and tinned most of his three-wall shots early in the contest. Once he settled down, most of the clash was over and Desaulniers had total control of the situation, walking to victory 15-9, 15-10, and 15-10.

Blank

Mark Panarese (fourth), Chuck Elliot (eighth) and Clark Bain (ninth) also scored easy wins, blanking their opposition 3-0. Ned Bacon and Mitch Reese, playing numbers three and seven respectively, tallied for Harvard losing one game apiece. Number ten, Jeff Seacrest, won an unofficial match, 3-2.

The excellent play of Penn's Jon Foster proved to be too much for John Havens as the Quaker won in three, 15-18, 9-15, 13-15. Havens, whose mobility is still hampered by an injured knee, could not retrieve Foster's drop shots even when he anticipated them.

The fifth and sixth seeds also dropped matches. John Stubbs surrendered 1-3 to Pat Murray, while teammate Clancy Nixon went the distance, losing to Tom Wolfe 15-7, 15-7, 14-16, 8-15, and 15-18.

Doublement

The tournament this weekend is like two tournaments in one. Mike Desaulniers will compete for the National Amateur Individual title while two different Harvard entries compete for the national team championship. The two-six seeds on the Harvard varsity will make up one of the squads and the 7-11 seeds will form the other five-man team.

"This tournament is really tough, because we are competing against all-star teams from cities or states all over the continent, not just the collegiate teams," Panarese said. "Desaulniers is probably the man to beat in the individuals, but Mexico, Canada, New York and Philadelphia are the favored teams," he added.