Men's Tennis Rolls Past Princeton, Navy

The 15th-ranked Harvard men's tennis team finally had a chance to display its awesome talent to the home crowd at the Beren Tennis Center this weekend. After two months of competition on the road, the Crimson (18-3) did not disappoint the locals.

The weekend was highlighted by a 6-1 drubbing of a strong Princeton team on Saturday during which only one Harvard singles player lost a set. The homestand started with a powerful 7-0 domination of a weaker Navy squad on Friday.

Most impressive may be the fact that through all of this, the Harvard squad was undermanned. Senior co-captain and number one player Tom Blake suffered an injury early in the week that kept him out of the weekend's contests.

"Tom injured a hamstring Monday in the last sprint of the day," said head coach Dave Fish '72. "He's the fastest healer I've ever seen. He continues to amaze me, but it doesn't look great."

"Tom got hurt Monday, so once we knew we had to move up I think it had an effect on our practice," co-captain Philip Tseng said. "Everyone knew we had to step up with the injury and that got us going."

With or without Tom Blake, the Crimson could not have looked much stronger on Saturday. Harvard swept the doubles matches with freshman James Blake and sophomore John Doran at the top position (8-4), junior Kunj Majmudar and freshman Scott Clark (8-5) in the second slot and Tseng and junior Mike Passarella (8-4) at third doubles. The domination carried through to singles play as Harvard jumped all over the Tigers at the beginning of the match.

"Keeping the momentum we have had recently was important thing," Tseng said." We came out strong in singles from the start. All that energy we had may have affected them."

The Crimson charge was led by a New Yorker's double bagel--Majmudar's 6-0, 6-0 destruction of Kyle Kilegerman at the number two singles spot. Majmudar normally plays the fourth spot, but with Tom Blake out everyone moved up, and for this match Majmudar played ahead of Doran. The lineup change clearly paid off.

"We're all really excited [that Majmudar] dominated," Tseng said. "Coach moved him up because he knew he was capable of winning there."

"Kunj was surgical today," Fish said. "He just kept taking it to the guy."

As Majmudar was frustrating his opponent, the anguished yelling of other Tigers let everyone know who was in control of the match.

Playing in his brother's number one spot, James Blake had a tough matchup with Jon Gilula, but Blake won the big points and handled any pressure with relative ease.

Blake broke serve in the ninth game of the first set to go up 5-4. The first break of the match was all he needed as a crisp service game closed out the set.

Blake carried the momentum of the first set win into the second. Blake's opponent began serving and volleying in the initial game, and took the first point to go up 15-0. On the next point Blake hit a gorgeous topspin lob for a winner for 15-15. On the next two points a huge forehand pass and an unplayable service return gave Blake two break points. The freshman squandered one break chance, but took the game with a spectacular topspin forehand taken out of the air.

The one service break was again all Blake needed. He closed out the match by holding at love, with three service-winners in the game, including an ace on match point.

Aces were wild for Doran as well. His all-courtgame kept him in control of the match against AhnAhn Liu from the beginning and he also finishedoff his opponent 6-3, 6-2 with an ace on matchpoint.

"I was really happy with how Doran played,"Fish said. "He went after it more aggressivelytoday."

Playing side-by-side, Tseng and Passerman mayhave fed off each other in their victories.

Tseng jumped out on Jeff Schachter quickly,taking the first set 6-2 and jumping out to a 5-0lead in the second. Through all of this hisopponent was whining and cursing his fate as Tsengsteadily dominated from the backcourt.

Passerman, meanwhile, was in a tough match atthe sixth slot against David Schonbraun. The firstset went to the tiebreaker where Passermanprevailed 7-6.

"If one court is dominating, it will have aneffect on other courts," Tseng said. "It kind offlows from court to court. That may have been thecase with me and Mike."

As Tseng was closing his opponent out, 6-2 inthe second, Passarella jumped out early in thesecond. His opponent, frustrated with losing thefirst set, played a loose service game and wasbroken in the first game of the second set.Passarella effectively closed the door in the nextgame with a tough, hard-fought hold of service togo up 2-0. After this his opponent unraveledmentally, and lost the match (7-6,6-3) on anignominious double fault.

The only Crimson player to drop a singles setwas Clark at the fifth spot. The freshman droppedthe first set tiebreaker to Patrick Sweeney, butfought back by winning the second set tiebreakeron an ace.

The third set featured inspired play. Bothplayers held serve twice for a 2-2 score. Clark'sopponent then broke serve to take an earlyadvantage. However, Clark fought back, winning twoextraordinary, lengthy points on the way tobreaking back after his opponent choked a volley.

At 3-3 Clark's serve was again broken, butClarke jumped right back to even things at 4-4. Inthe ninth game, Clark fell down love-30 on servebefore winning the next three points. Up 40-30Clark hit a solid approach and was about to putaway a forehand volley to go up 5-4 when hetwisted an ankle and tumbled to the ground.

As Fish and the trainer headed onto the court,it was pretty clear this match was over. With thedual meet in hand, Clark would live to fightanother day and retired for the Crimson's onlyblemish on the day.

"We lost to Princeton last year in a dual matchso we were pretty fired up to play them," Tsengsaid. "We wanted revenge."

In light of this battle, the Navy contest wasof little note. The Crimson dominated the actionfrom start to finish, pulling off the 7-0 sweepthat was denied it on Saturday.

"Navy was a good squad, but not as strong asPrinceton," Fish said. "It was nice to be athome."

The most interesting individual result wasJames Blake's at the number one position. Blakewas stretched to three sets against Navy's MitchKoch, but prevailed 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.

The lineup was fundamentally the same, with thesubstitution of sophomore Joe Green instead ofPasserman at six singles. Green also took threesets in dispatching Dan Stahlschmidt 6-1, 3-7,6-2.

The simple fact that the team was at home mayhave been what was most important to the team. TheCrimson squad had been on the road so long.

"Being on the road for so long helps yourself-reliance," Fish said. "You get used toplaying in many situations. We almost forgot whatit is like to have people cheering for us."

"It is great to play in front of a home crowd,"Tseng said. "It is a definite edge because youropponent may not feel as comfortable."

After having this fine homecoming, the Crimsonis rewarded with another road trip. The team facesa tough Yale squad on Friday and a weaker Brownteam on Saturday.

"Yale's a pretty tough team, we have our handsfull for the weekend," Tseng said.

As for the team's prospects, health seems to bethat major concern. Clark's ankle sprain cannotafford to be serious for a Crimson squad alreadywithout an emotional leader.

"We will just keep getting people healthy, keepgetting better going into regionals," Fish said

Aces were wild for Doran as well. His all-courtgame kept him in control of the match against AhnAhn Liu from the beginning and he also finishedoff his opponent 6-3, 6-2 with an ace on matchpoint.

"I was really happy with how Doran played,"Fish said. "He went after it more aggressivelytoday."

Playing side-by-side, Tseng and Passerman mayhave fed off each other in their victories.

Tseng jumped out on Jeff Schachter quickly,taking the first set 6-2 and jumping out to a 5-0lead in the second. Through all of this hisopponent was whining and cursing his fate as Tsengsteadily dominated from the backcourt.

Passerman, meanwhile, was in a tough match atthe sixth slot against David Schonbraun. The firstset went to the tiebreaker where Passermanprevailed 7-6.

"If one court is dominating, it will have aneffect on other courts," Tseng said. "It kind offlows from court to court. That may have been thecase with me and Mike."

As Tseng was closing his opponent out, 6-2 inthe second, Passarella jumped out early in thesecond. His opponent, frustrated with losing thefirst set, played a loose service game and wasbroken in the first game of the second set.Passarella effectively closed the door in the nextgame with a tough, hard-fought hold of service togo up 2-0. After this his opponent unraveledmentally, and lost the match (7-6,6-3) on anignominious double fault.

The only Crimson player to drop a singles setwas Clark at the fifth spot. The freshman droppedthe first set tiebreaker to Patrick Sweeney, butfought back by winning the second set tiebreakeron an ace.

The third set featured inspired play. Bothplayers held serve twice for a 2-2 score. Clark'sopponent then broke serve to take an earlyadvantage. However, Clark fought back, winning twoextraordinary, lengthy points on the way tobreaking back after his opponent choked a volley.

At 3-3 Clark's serve was again broken, butClarke jumped right back to even things at 4-4. Inthe ninth game, Clark fell down love-30 on servebefore winning the next three points. Up 40-30Clark hit a solid approach and was about to putaway a forehand volley to go up 5-4 when hetwisted an ankle and tumbled to the ground.

As Fish and the trainer headed onto the court,it was pretty clear this match was over. With thedual meet in hand, Clark would live to fightanother day and retired for the Crimson's onlyblemish on the day.

"We lost to Princeton last year in a dual matchso we were pretty fired up to play them," Tsengsaid. "We wanted revenge."

In light of this battle, the Navy contest wasof little note. The Crimson dominated the actionfrom start to finish, pulling off the 7-0 sweepthat was denied it on Saturday.

"Navy was a good squad, but not as strong asPrinceton," Fish said. "It was nice to be athome."

The most interesting individual result wasJames Blake's at the number one position. Blakewas stretched to three sets against Navy's MitchKoch, but prevailed 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.

The lineup was fundamentally the same, with thesubstitution of sophomore Joe Green instead ofPasserman at six singles. Green also took threesets in dispatching Dan Stahlschmidt 6-1, 3-7,6-2.

The simple fact that the team was at home mayhave been what was most important to the team. TheCrimson squad had been on the road so long.

"Being on the road for so long helps yourself-reliance," Fish said. "You get used toplaying in many situations. We almost forgot whatit is like to have people cheering for us."

"It is great to play in front of a home crowd,"Tseng said. "It is a definite edge because youropponent may not feel as comfortable."

After having this fine homecoming, the Crimsonis rewarded with another road trip. The team facesa tough Yale squad on Friday and a weaker Brownteam on Saturday.

"Yale's a pretty tough team, we have our handsfull for the weekend," Tseng said.

As for the team's prospects, health seems to bethat major concern. Clark's ankle sprain cannotafford to be serious for a Crimson squad alreadywithout an emotional leader.

"We will just keep getting people healthy, keepgetting better going into regionals," Fish said