Tennis Squads Falter in 5-4 Decisions

Beware of Princeton women with racquets.

The women's squash team learned this lesson last month, and yesterday it came time for the tennis team to fall, by a 5-4 margin, to the perennial Ivy League champion Tigers.

Actually, Princeton had an off-day but still managed to dispose of their visitors, dropping the Crimson's season mark to 3-4.

"They didn't play up to par," sophomore Tiina Bougas said after the match. Perhaps not, but Princeton's Joy Cummings played well enough to topple Bougas in the first position, 6-4, 6-4, and three other Harvard players met similar fates in their singles matches.

The netwomen did salvage two of the three doubles matches, but by this time Princeton had the match well in hand.

Citing a "lack of mental energy," Bougas did not come up with the big points en route to her two-set loss against Cummings, a long-time Massachusetts rival.

Harvard fared better at numbers two and three. Playing what coach Pete Felske called an "outstanding" match-in the second slot, freshman Maria Pe defeated Pia Tamayo in two sets.

Another yardling, Erica Schulman, emerged with Harvard's only double win. Schulman scored a 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 victory at third singles and then rounded out the afternoon with another three-set win at second doubles with Bougas.

The Crimson's fourth and final win came at third doubles when Princeton defaulted to Debbie Kalish and Meg Meyer during the first set because of an injury.

Felske yesterday described his team's performance as "a good showing" since Princeton has "dominated the league" for a long time. Nevertheless, the net women will get a chance to get into the Ivy League win column against the University of Pennsylvania today, and will also try to avenge last year's 8-1 loss.

THE NOTEBOOK: Depending on the draw, Bougas may be able to redeem herself against Cummings in a rematch at the Ivies in May...Princeton is once again the odds-on favorite to take the Ivy title. Last year they shared it with Yale, whom the Crimson meets next weekend.