M. Tennis Heads Home; Women Leave for ECAC's

They've seen the urban sprawl of Providence, roughed the dust bowl of Oklahoma, and survived the Jersey Turnpike.

Now all the Harvard men's tennis team wants is to come home and play. Luckily for it, this weekend is the Harvard Fall Invitational.

On Friday through Sunday at the Murr Center, the Crimson will take on players from Bowling Green, the University of Colorado, Rutgers, and MIT. The tournament format will be two or three "flighted" singles draws and one doubles draw. Players who drop in the first round will head to a consolation bracket.

Most of the traveling team should be playing this weekend. Co-captain John Doran and freshman Ki-teh Kim are still recovering from injuries and won't play.

After facing nationally ranked opponents in Tulsa two weeks ago and the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) championships last weekend, the Crimson find this weekend considerably less challenging. None of the opposition boast anyone in upper echelon of the ITA rankings.

"This gives a lot of opportunity for guys who didn't travel with us," said Doran, who still has patella tendonitis. His injury forced him to pull out of this weekend's Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Grand Slam event in Dallas.

The first rounds will be played on Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Murr Center. The singles finals should start at 10 a.m. Sunday.

Since the tournament is in individual play format, the results do not count for Harvard's team record. However, the individual results will reflect on each player's ITA ranking.

The men are coming off a dramatic victory at the ECAC Championships in Princeton, N.J. This weekend, the women hope to do the same.

This is the first team tournament this season for the Crimson. So far, it has put up some solid results in tournaments in Providence and Chapel Hill, N.C.

Captain Vedica Jain will lead the team into battle. Joining her are junior Sanaz Ghazal and sophomore Andrea Magyera. Harvard will unveil its strong freshman class, adding Sanja Bajin, Nivedita Jerath and Lara Naqushbandi to the traveling squad this year.

While 1998 winner Virginia Tech won't be in Princeton, its final round victims, the University of Virginia, will attend. Other strong contenders for the title include co-hosts Princeton and Rutgers, Dartmouth and Yale.