Netwomen Lose Squeaker to Brown

Onetime Eagle Joe Walsh once made a lot of money by telling people that life's been good to him so far.

Harvard women's tennis Coach Gordon Graham would like to say the same thing. But with a 5-4 loss to Brown in Providence on Wednesday, life's been more like a sweet-potato pie: yucky.

"It was a very close match," freshman Kate Roiter said. "We're very upset."

Upset about an upset. This year, Harvard (4-9) has been a less than dominating team, but the Crimson had the muscle to pull this match out.

It came down to freshman Kelly Granat on the court with the match hanging in the balance, 4-4. But Granat, already down 5-2 in the third set when the pressure fell on her, managed to win just one more game and fell, 6-3.

In fact, Harvard led the match four points to three with Granat and sophomore Eliza Parker still on the courts. Playing right next to each other, both players lost the first set but won the second.

"Kelly and Eliza kind of pushed eached other along," Roiter said.

Brown Too Much

But Brown was just too much. Parker fell first, followed shortly afterwards by Granat and the final two points went to the Bears.

"Everyone gave it their all," Roiter said. "A few people were disappointed with how they played, but we all wanted to win very badly."

Not disappointed with how she played was Co-Captain Melissa McNabb, who dispatched her singles opponent in straight sets and combined with Roiter to win Harvard's only doubles point in three sets.

Roiter and freshman Erica Cheng won their singles matches to round out the Crimson's scoring.