Netmen to Host Pennsylvania, Columbia

The Harvard men's tennis team will get its first opportunity this weekend to see just how much talent and depth it has.

The Crimson (4-4 overall) takes on Penn (13-4 overall, 2-2 EITA) this afternoon in its first league match of the season. And Harvard will host a tough Columbia squad--with two of the top four players in the East--tomorrow at the Beren Tennis Center.

The Quakers top player, senior Mitch Speigel, boasts a win over the top player at West Virginia, the top team in the league and 25th-ranked squad in the nation. Columbia boasts two players, Rob Kresberg and Jeff Chiang, who are ranked 23rd and 41st respectively in the country.

The Crimson players have proven that they can hold their own against the top players in the country. Roger Berry, playing at number one, recently defeated Temple's Joe Lizardo, currently ranked 63rd in the nation.

Playing in the number-two spot for the Crimson this weekend, Berry will face Penn's Dan Levine, a tenacious baseliner who has posed problems for Crimson players in the past, and Chiang.

"I'm just dying to play [Chiang]," Berry said. "We've been playing each other since we were 10 years old. I'm going to be all over the net, and he's going to have to hit like a thousand passing shots [to beat me]."

Freshman Mike Zimmerman is slated to face Speigel and Kresberg in the top position. While Speigel is an aggressive serve-and-volleyer and Kresberg is more of a baseliner, Zimmerman has strengths that should prove effective against both styles of play.

Zimmerman will rely on solid groundstrokes and finesse shots against Kresberg, while his strong return of serve should cause difficulties for Speigel by effectively taking away his biggest weapon, his powerful serve.

Berry and Zimmerman will play at first doubles, while sophomore Jonathan Cardi--who will be playing number-three singles for the Crimson--and freshman Mike Shyjan will pair off in the number-two doubles position.

Cardi, who played number-one singles at various times last season, is returning from a severe shoulder injury that sidelined him for 10 months in 1988.

Rounding out the lineup are freshmen Derek Brown and Albert Chang at five and six, respectively.

"It's going to be a measure for us," Berry said. "These will be tough league matches for us, and they'll show us how far we've come."

Foibles and Eccentricities: Despite the success of the Radcliffe women's lightweight crew team's trip to California in the San Diego Crew Classic over spring break, the team's weekend was not without its foibles and eccentricities.

Upon arrival, there was a mix-up over the Black and White's rooming accommodations at the 32nd Street Naval Base. The heats for the light-weight event, cancelled because CalPoly scratched, threw Radcliffe directly into the final with no idea of what to expect from the other crews. And a vicious rumour in an inaccurate program made some rowers think that they had to weigh 125 lbs. (instead of 130) to make weight for the regatta.

"For some reason, we were able to laugh it all off," added Jacqueline Saito.

Perhaps the lights were able to take it all so jovially because of the laid-back California atmosphere.

"There were lots of guys walking around wearing ridiculous green lycra bike pants," Jennifer Dodge said. "It was hysterical."

Quote of the Week: "I take the shot and I hear this voice [Coach Steve Fisher] screaming, 'Not that shot.' That might have had something to do with me missing."--Michigan center Terry Mills on his miss that was rebounded for the winning basket in Saturday's NCAA semifinal against Illinois. --Lori J. Lakin contributed to this notebook