Brown Buries Netmen; Bruins Surprise, 8-1

They say all good things must come to an end.

Yesterday in Providence, the Harvard men's tennis team saw its winning streak over Brown brought to an abrupt end.

The Crimson dropped an 8-1 decision to the Bruins. Brown (11-2 overall, 6-2 EITA) captured its first-ever victory in 53 matches against Harvard (8-7,2-2).

"I was very aware of it [never beating Harvard]," Brown Coach Bob Woods said. "We just played better this year. It was just one of those things."

"They'll be back," Woods added. "It's nice while it lasted though. They'll be back like Poltergeist."

In the first singles match, Co-Captain Arkie Engle lost a 6-3, 6-0 decision to Tim Donovan, the nation's 16th-ranked player, while Mark Leschly dropped a tough, 6-2,7-5 decision to Nick Jones.

At number-three singles, Jon Cardi fell to Marcia Morariu in straight sets, 6-2, 6-4, while Roger Berry dropped a tough decision to Kevin Weinman.

Berry and Weinman fought to a 6-6 tie before Weinman took the first set in a tie breaker. Weinman went on to win the second set, 6-3.

After losing his first set, 6-3, Ravi Kumar rallied to take the second set, 7-6. In the third and deciding set, Amin Khoury fought off Kumar to win the set, 6-4, and the match.

Rob Soni closed out the singles competition with a tough 7-5, 7-6 loss to Steve Ryu.

In doubles action, Engle and Leschly recorded Harvard's lone victory of the day. The number-one doubles team won the first set, 6-4, followed by a 6-0 bruising of Jones and Khoury.

Berry and Cardi dropped a 6-3,6-2 decision to Donovan and Morariu, while Kumar and Co-Captain Paul Palandjian were involved in a three-set war at number-three doubles.

Kumar and Palandjian won the first set convincingly, 6-2, but dropped the final two sets and match to Ruy and Dave Fried.

"Harvard had a monster recruiting year," Woods added. "It won't be long before Harvard is at the top again. It's a recruiting year that Stanford would be proud of."

THE NOTEBOOK: It was Harvard's second 8-1 loss since 1979. Last year, Columbia beat the Crimson, 8-1...Harvard now leads the series 52-1...Harvard has recorded 26 shutouts over the Bruins...Harvard has won 415 individual matches, while dropping only 56...The first match between the two schools was played in 1920, a match Harvard won, 6-0... Harvard followed that shutout with nine more in a row...The netmen will travel to Yale today for another big EITA match...Harvard Coach Dave Fish is now 11-1 lifetime against the Bruins...Harvard is now 25-1 at Brown, and 27-0 at home...Palandjian played in his first match since having surgery during the winter.