Tennis

It wasn't exactly fun in the sun.

The 25th-ranked Harvard men's tennis team played a slew of top-20 teams during spring break, and finished with a 1-6 record. Despite the disappointing showing, the squad gained some match experience against top-ranked teams.

"It was a tough week," Harvard Co-Captain Peter Palandjian said. "We played better each day. We had to adjust to the outdoors. It is obviously disappointing losing that many matches."

"It wasn't a total loss," Harvard's Darryl Laddin said. "We played a lot of top teams. We knew going into the meet that there was a chance we wouldn't come out with a lot of wins. We had a chance to test ourselves against some stronger teams."

Harvard (3-6 overall) began its trip by finishing 13th (out of 16 teams) in the Blue-Gray Classic, where the Crimson faced two top-10 teams and one top-20 squad. Last year the netmen captured 10th place in the tournament.

The netmen opened their slate against the fourth-ranked Georgia Bulldogs. "Georgia was the best team that we played," Laddin said. "They had a lot of depth. We had a lot of close matches, but Georgia was the definitely, the toughest team we played."

In the next round of the tournament, Harvard lost to the seventh-ranked Tennessee Volunteers, 5-1. Dave Clark captured the lone Crimson victory.

After losing all three of its matches in the Blue-Gray Classic, the Crimson traveled to the Sunshine State to take on Florida International. The Crimson came up big, winning 8-1 to record its only victory of the long trip.

The next day Harvard lost an 8-1 decision to number-eight ranked Miami. Mark Leschly captured the only victory for the Crimson.

Harvard's next match came against a familiar foe. The result was the same, as Harvard fell to Georgia, 8-1.

The doubles contingent of Paul Palandjian and Leschly recorded the only win for Harvard.

"We learned a lot," Harvard Co-Captain Bill Stanley said. "We should have done better. We should have been more competitive."

Saturday, the Crimson traveled to Louisiana to play its fourth game in four days. The netmen dropped a close 6-3 decision to South West Louisiana to wrap up their road trip.

The Crimson will host one of its biggest matches of the year this Friday against Columbia. The last time the Crimson lost an Ivy League game was April 14th, 1984-against the Lions.

In JV action, the Crimson finished with a 2-3 record over the break. Harvard scored victories over University of North Carolina (7-2) and Elon (5-4). However, the netmen lost to Davidson (8-1), Guilford (6-3), and Atlantic Christan (5-4).