Nationals End for Net men; Beckman Captures Sole Win

Remember UCLA's all-universe basketball line cups of the 60's and early 70's' Yeah, you know, the ones with Alcindor, Walton, Wickes, Rowe and Bibby. The teams that won 10 NCAA championships in 13 years Right UCLA.

Well that's the kind of UCLS squad which defeated Harvard men's tennis team in the NCAA National Saturday in Athens, Georgia, 5.1, chaminating the Crimson from the tournament. Officially, the match will be recorded as a 5.4 Harvard loss, because UCLA opted to default the three scheduled doubles matches as it already had victory at hand after the end of singles.

But the 5 Italy doesn't give a valid indication of how well Harvard performed against the best tennis team in the country. Three out of the six contests escalated to three-set showdowns when most experts expected Harvard which earned a berth in the tourney because if nabbed a take in the comparably weak Eastern Intercollegiate Tennis Association division to make only a token appearance against UCLA.

Fifth seeded freshman Dave Beekman was the only Crimson net man to topple his Bruin opponent as he downed Bruce Brescia, 2-6, 6 4, 6 2. Brescia UCLA's fifth best player has won a number of national titles in his college career than any other player in the country. He is an all-American, and two years ago he downed Harvard's best player, Don Pompan, in a national tournament.

Harvard Coach Dave Fish said of Beckman's effort "He Beckman just overpowered the gay. There were aces right and left. Dave took any ball he could get his racquet on and just clubbed it."

After Brescia, the players just keep on getting better and better. That's what Harvard found itself up against.

Each member of the six-man UCLA varsity squad is an all-American. The team's top five playas are all ranked among the best 40 net men in the nation. Harvard's own all-American, junior Howard Sands, isn't rated one of the country's top 40, although many feel that he should be.

Sands dropped two tough sets, 6-4, 6-4, to the fourth best racquetman in the United States. Marcel Freeman, Sands stunned Freeman with a victory in Harvard's loss to the Bruns over Spring break, but this time around, according to Fish, Freeman was his "sharpest, and he relentlessly attacked Howard Still, "Fish added, "Howard stretched him out."

Second-seeded captain Adam Beren also took both of his sets to the outer limits before he was dragged off the court, 7-5, 7-5, by Robby Venter, another Bruin netman rated one of America's four or five best.

Perhaps the most disappointing duel of the day was third-ranked Warren Grossman's 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 loss to Blaine Willenborg. In the seventh game of the third set. Willenborg snagged two cheap points after the ball skimmed the net and fell onto Grossman's side. It Grossman had been able to capture one of those two points, he would have had the opportunity to serve with a 5-2 advantage in-the third set. Thus, he could have forced doubles competition. Harvard's most potent and refined weapon over the last half of the regular season.

Despite the loss. Fish said that Grossman "played a classic match, where he did everything, but win. A couple of breaks just went against him."

"Once UCLS won it, they didn't play doubles, and we were disappointed because doubles is Harvard's strength," Fish added. "We wanted to play just because we wanted to prove what we could do. That's what we were praying for."

Harvard senior Alex Seaver, according, to Fish, "played a guy that was in the Twilight Zone, having so many winners that it was just hard to believe." That extra-terrestrial being was Dan Saltz and he routed Seaver for UCLA's only easy win, a 6-2, 6-1 triumph.

All-American John Davis struggled past sixth-seeded Rob Wheeler, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 Wheeler "served the match of his life," Fish said.

"After the match, coaches were coming up and telling us that we played great," Fish said, "I'm incredibly pround of them |the Crimson, because it showed what they are made of by taking the best team down to the wire in every match but one."

The season is over, and the net man can go back to studying. After garnering its second straight division title and intimidating the most destructive tennis force in the country. Harvard can only look forward to better things next year as the net men lose only Seaver to graduation. Maybe, in one year people won't be surprised to see a team from Harvard battle a team like UCLA.

UCLA S. HARVARD 4

at Athens, Ga.

Singles--1 Marcel Freeman (U) d. Howard Sandas, 6-4, 6-4, 2. Robbre Venter (U) d. Adam Beren, 7-5, 7-5, 3. Blaine Willenborg (U) d. Warren Grossman, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, 4. Danny Saltz (U) d. Alex Seavers, 6-2, 6-1, 5. David Beckman (H) d Bruce Brescia, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6. John Davis (U) d. Robert Wheeler, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Doubles--UCLA defaulted all three matches.