M. Tennis Nips Princeton, Zips Navy

In this weekend's victories over Princeton and Navy, the Harvard men's team discovered a formula for success--over- coming adversity. Harvard  4 Princeton  3 Harvard  7 Navy  0

There may have been gusting, relentless winds. There may have been frigid weather.

And there may have been two teams desperately wanting to put a dent in the Crimson's season.

But the Crimson was not ready to give in that easily.

In the tightly-contested 4-3 win over Princeton, the 26th-ranked Crimson (13-6 overall, 5-0 EITA) not only had to overcome poor weather conditions, but also a talented and feisty Tiger squad--a team that defeated the Crimson at regionals last year.

Princeton began the match by taking two of the three doubles matches to grab the doubles point, taking advantage of a persistent Crimson weakness.

Although captain Andrew Rueb and sophomore Mitty Arnold pulled out an 8-4 victory at first doubles, the other struggled.

At second doubles, freshman Tomas Blake and sophomore Josh Hausman lost 8-6, while at third doubles freshman Philip Tseng and junior Adam Valkin were given a rude awakening with an 8-0 loss.

"We haven't spent enough time on it [doubles]," Rueb said. "Now that matches are going, it's hard to patch up something that needs a year of work."

Although it dropped the doubles point, the Crimson took this wake-up call to heart and came back in the singles matches with a vengeance.

"Once we got down, the team showed its character by rising to the occasion," Rueb said.

The singles matches proved to be equally as tough as the doubles, with one exception--it was the Crimson who came out on top.

At first singles, Rueb pulled out an impressive 7-6, 6-3 win against Reed Cordish.

"The second set against Reed was the best set that I have played all year," Rueb said. "I told myself that I was going to let myself make mistakes--as long as they were productive mistakes."

The Crimson also took away wins at second, fourth and fifth singles--with Tseng, Arnold and Junior Dan Chung winning their respective matches.

Blake and junior Todd Meringoff lost tough matches at third and sixth singles.

Blake and Arnold both fought relentlessly in three set matches after losing their first sets, which ultimately helped to boost the Crimson.

"In Tom's match, the other guy [Princeton's Brook Hazelton] was serving for the match, and although Tom ended up losing, it lifted up our spirits," Rueb said. "Mitty and Tom were down a set, but by pulling out their second sets they helped my match and everyone else's."

The Crimson overcame a hungry Tiger squad on Friday, and more importantly realized the extent of its eastern competition.

"Coming back from California, we didn't think that anyone was a good as the teams we played out there," Blake said. "the Princeton match prepared us and told us that there would be some tough matches in the east."

Harvard 7, Navy 0

After the heard-fought victory over the Tigers, the Crimson still had another barrier to knock down--Navy.

Although the Crimson entered the match knowing that Navy was not at its level, the Crimson applied the big lesson it learned the previous day--that nothing can be taken for granted--and destroyed its opponent.

At the end of the day, the Crimson's 7-0 shutout showed that the previous day's win could have far-reaching effects.

"The conditions were just terrible," Tseng said.

"Throughout the match, the wind was a big factor and that favored Navy. They knew exactly how to play in the wind."

Apparantly, the crimson also knew how to conquer the gusts of wind, while at the same time focusing under difficult conditions.

The Crimson began by taking the doubles point that had eluded them the previous day.

In single, the Crimson dominated--taking all six matches in straight sets. Tseng Blake, Arnold, Meringoff, Hausman and Valkin won at first through six singles, respectively.

Looking ahead to the Crimson's four remaining regular-season eastern match-ups against Brown, Yale Dartmouth and Cornell, last weekend's victories could provide a pivotal mental boost for the remainder of the season.

"We want to win the conference outright," Rueb said. "We don't want to have a loss in the region."