Netwomen Smash Eagles, 8-1; Frosh Martha Roberts Shines

The Roberts sisters led the parade, recording the Crimson's first two points quickly and decisively, as the women's tennis team shellacked the Eagles of B.C., 8-1, yesterday afternoon at Palmer Dixon.

Martha Roberts, Harvard's top gun, tamed Kathy Lynch with a powerful first service and an aggressive return of serve. Roberts yielded only four games as she raced to a 6-1, 6-3 victory.

Roberts commented that she played "just great." "Everything was working, my volley was strong, my first serves went in--it was really fun," she added.

Sally Roberts, playing at number four, was the first woman off the courts, demolishing her opponent Kristin Fullam 6-0, 7-5.

In the second slot, Libby Pierpont grabbed the first set, nailing Eagle Dede Kreiger with accurate overheads and deep shots to the corners. Falling behind 3-0 in the next stanza, Pierpont came back to knot the score at six all. The nine-point tiebreaker went the distance, with the final point deciding the match.

Rifles and Reflexes

As the crowd hushed, Pierpont served and responded to two rifled forehands down the line with successive reflex volleys. The second, a backhand lunge, forced Kreiger to put up a lob that fell just inches over the baseline. Pierpont carried the set to win the match 6-0, 7-6.

Meg Meyer won four games straight in the final set of her contest to tally another point for the Crimson cause, as she downed Maura Nolan, 2 and 4. At five, Captain Katie Ditzler destroyed an overmatched Colleen Ryan 6-2, 6-1. Leslie Miller fell in the sixth position, 2-6, 3-6 to B.C.'s Martina Nolan.

Harvard swept the doubles competition as the second and third teams turned in surprisingly strong performances. The combo of Roberts and Roberts, ranked number one in Massachusetts, utilized the lob to edge Lynch and Fullam 7-6, 6-4.

The number-two team of Ditzler and Pierpont ousted Kreiger and Moorhead in a jiffy, registering a 6-3, 6-1 triumph. Meyer walked away from her singles match and right into her doubles match, where she teamed up with Miller to bagel the Nolan duo 6-0, 6-0.