Netwomen Brave Elements For 3-3 California Trip

Shunning wet T-shirt contests in Fort Lauderdale, the Harvard women's tennis team opted to battle the top squads in the country and a raging snow storm over spring break.

The Crimson (4-3 on the year travelled to California and came away with a 3-3 mark-its only losses coming to top-10 teams.

The netwomen dropped below 500 before returning to Cambridge however be losing a TKO to a blizzard which forced them to spend an unscheduled night in Minneapolis.

Although it fell to powerful Stanford, USC and Berkeley, Harvard did defeat Pacific, Santa Barbara and Long Beach.

After besting Pacific, 7-2, the Crimson had its most disappointing march of the trip against Berkeley. Leaving Cambridge, Cantab Coach Don Usher had hoped to upset the ninth-ranked Golden Bears-only to see his team fall 6-3.

The match was much closer than the scoreboard indicated, as the seasoned Bears escaped with some tight, three-set victories over a Crimson team which was playing only its third match of the season.

"They're no better than use they're just farther along in their season," Usher explained. "If we played Berkeley last and had Elizabeth [Evans]. We could have beaten Berkeley."

Evans, the team's first single player and ranked third in the country was forced to miss the final three matches of the trip due to an ailing thesis.

After losing to Stanford by a score of 8-1, Harvard headed south-without its ace-to take on Santa Barbara and Long Beach in what shaped up as two even contests.

The Crimson defeated Santa Barbara 6-3, but Captain Debbie Kaufmann came down with the flu and was unable to play for the remainder of the trip.

The Crimson was then in the unenviable position going into the Long Beach match with its captain and top singles player both out.

"When you lose the number three player in the country, you're really behind the eight ball," Usher said.

His players felt their confidence plummeting as the match neared. "We didn't really expect to win the match," Kathy Vigna said.

Despite her anxieties, Vigna and her doubles partner, Erika Smith, came up with some clutch play to propel the Crimson to victory.

With the team score tied 4-4, Smith and Vigna played the final and deciding match. It was a seesaw battle with the Cantabs ultimately emerging victorious, 6-4 in the third set-giving Harvard the match, 5-4.

"A good team has to learn to win when it's down," Usher said. "From now on, if the kids get down, they'll remember that they've been down before-against probably better competition-and pulled it out."

The Crimson's trip ended on rather two soar notes. First, it was defeated, 7-2, by a high-powered USC team in the journey's finale, and then it was ambushed by the blizzard.