Netwomen Top Dartmouth, Boost Ivy Record to 2-0

The Harvard women's tennis team dealt a punishing 7-2 loss to Dartmouth last night at Hanover. N. H. to raise its overall record to 5 4 and up its Ivy mark to 2-0.

The netwomen were never in trouble as their top four singles players won in straight sets First singles player Elizabeth Evans had an easy time defeating Kate Rugen, 6-3, 6-1 Junior Maria Pe dismissed her opponent 6-2 in the second and final set after having taken a 7-5 decision in the first stanza. Freshman Erica Smith and junior Erica Schulman continued Harvard's dominance by posting respective 6-1, 6-0 and 6-1, 6-4 victories.

But Dartmouth's last two singles players ruined the Crimson's bid to sweep the meeting, taking the next two contests in three sets. Sophomore Deanne Loonin battled back from a 6-4 first-set loss to win the second stanza, 6-4, before dropping the last set, 6-2. And sophomore Captain Deborah Kaufman lost a 6-4, 6-7, 7-6 squeaker.

However, the squad left no doubt about the event's outcome by sweeping all three doubles matches. The first doubles team of Evans and Pe and the second team of Smith and Kaufman registered identical 6-4, 6-0 triumphs before Loonin and yardling Roberta Hing combined on a 6-3, 6-1 thrashing of the Big Green's third doubles team.

Kaufman believes that the squad is especially strong this year, and the netwomen should not have many problems with their next two Ivy League opponents, Brown and Cornell However the Crimson must save its best for last if it hopes to clinch the Ivy League Championship. The netwomen will be facing their toughest obstacles. Yale and Princeton, as their season draws to a close.

During spring break the squad travelled to California to test its skills against some of the nation's stronger teams, and it returned with a 3-4 record that bodes well for the remainder of the season.

The squad started the trip on a down note, losing to the University of California. Berkeley, 7-2 However, the Crimson bounced back in its second match, downing Santa Clara, 6-3. Harvard then edged Long Beach 5-4, before falling to Santa Barbara by an identical score. The squad then came up with what Pe called its most inspired performance, a 6-3 defeat of the University of California, Irvine. The netwomen closed out the road trip by losing to two of the nation's top-ranked teams, Pepperdine and USC Pepperdine registered a 9-0 shutout while USC triumphed, 8-1.

But all was not lost, since, as Kaufman stated, "we weren't expected to win anything out there but we came up with three wins."