Surprises Abound as M. Tennis Closes Out Fall Season

In a fitting tribute to the parity within the Harvard men's tennis team this season, its top players lost in early rounds while a freshman and an unheralded junior went deep into the ITA Rolex East Regionals Individual Tournament this weekend at Princeton.

The tournament was one of nine regional ITA tournaments held this weekend. Ninety-six of the top players from 47 eastern U.S. colleges competed in the singles and doubles tournaments, with the singles finalists and doubles champions advancing to the ITA Rolex Indoor Championships held in February.

The Crimson's weekend was a mix of surprising success and disappointing defeat. Joe Green, co-captain and the team's top player, was seeded No. 7 in the field. After a bye in the first round and an easy 6-1, 6-2 victory over Andre Vanier of St. John's University, Green faltered and lost to unseeded Ahn Ahn Liu of Princeton, who went on to the semifinals.

Sophomore William Lee, the Crimson's other seeded player at No. 13, didn't even fair as well as Green. After the first-round bye, Lee lost 7-6 (7-2), 6-3 to John Portlock, also of Princeton.

"I guess I just didn't feel very comfortable, I was tight and nervous," Lee said.

Freshman Dave Lingman, on the other hand, was anything but nervous. Unseeded and in the middle of the pack on the Harvard team, Lingman had a great run through the tournament. In the first round, he defeated Jay Bruner of Virginia Tech in straight sets. Then after a tough 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 second round victory over Akshay Jagdale of Rutgers, Lingman made his big upset.

With relative ease, Lingman toyed and dispatched No. 14 seed Steve Millerman--Columbia's No. 1 player--6-3, 6-4. Lingman then had a shot in the fourth round against No.5 seed Eric Scharf of St. John's, but ultimately fell 6-0, 6-4.

"I played better than I had been the whole season," Lingman said. "My forehand and serve were working well. I was actually disappointed I didn't get farther."

One of Lingman's Crimson teammates who did get farther was junior Andrew Styperek. In his first two matches, he barely broke a sweat, beating Matt Frakes of Penn State 6-2, 6-3 and Yale's No. 1 player and No. 8 seed Greg Royce 7-5, 6-2. His first close match came in the round of 16, against West Virginia's No. 1 player and No. 15 seed Mike Dektas. After pulling out a close tiebreaker in the first set, Styperek finished off Dektas for a 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 win and a spot in the quarterfinals.

Unfortunately, Styperek's luck ran out against Columbia's Akram Zaman, the No. 12 seed. After winning the first set 6-3, Styperek lost the momentum and the match 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.

Other Crimson players who participated in the tournament fared well also. Junior Mike Rich took out No. 9 seed Salil Seshadri of Columbia in three sets in the second round before suffering a 6-3, 6-4 defeat at the hands of Oscar Lopez of the University of Maryland- Baltimore.

In the singles finals, Mitchell Koch of Navy defeated Justin Natale of Brown 6-4, 7-5. Both will get a berth into the Rolex Indoor Tournament in February.

On the doubles side, the Crimson faired well, but did not meet its high expectations. The unseeded team of Oliver Choo and Mike Rich rolled through to the quarterfinals before losing to the No. 1 team of Seshadri and Zaman. Harvard's top team, the No. 5 seeds Joe Green and Andrew Styperek, also played well but was stopped early in the tournament, falling in the quarters to the No. 2 team from Navy.

The tournament closed out the Crimson's successful fall season. With marked improvement from the freshman and returning players, and the ECAC fall title under the belt, Harvard Coach Dave Fish and the rest of the players will have the next two months off from competition to work out and rest.

"It's good to have different guys doing well at different times," Fish said. "There's been parity from the beginning, and I've seen great improvement and good motivation. The only thing that could be different in the spring is doubles."

Fish also commented on the fact that lesser-known players like Lingman and Styperek were doing well while some of the top players have had their ups and downs.

"I tell the guys [that] we're like a river that's rising," said Fish. "Each player is like a cork floating on the river, and as long as the river is rising, it doesn't matter who's up or down."