Men's Tennis Slams VCU

This weekend, it seemed like everything was going wrong for the Harvard men's tennis team (9-2).

Plane delays and cancellations meant that Harvard couldn't leave on time Friday, and it ultimately meant the cancellation of a Saturday match against Old Dominion in Norfolk, Va.

"The original match time was at 1 p.m.," Assistant Coach Peter Mandeau said. "We got there at 5."

"It's unfortunate, we would have liked to play them."

The team was able to get in a match yesterday against Virginia Commonwealth.

Again, things didn't start off so well. This time, though, things would turn out just fine.

After losing the doubles point and falling behind in the first set of three different singles matches against Virginia Commonwealth yesterday, Harvard's players rallied for a 5-2 win.

The Crimson got its only doubles win at the No. 3 slot when junior John Doran and freshman Cillie Swart rolled to an 8-3 win.

After the No. 2 Crimson team of co-captain Mike Passarella and sophomore Scott Clark dropped their match 8-3, it came down to the No. 1 doubles contest for the deciding factor in the doubles point.

Harvard co-captain Kunj Majmudar and sophomore James Blake, the No. 2 team in the nation, lost a razor-close match to the Rams' top team in a tiebreaker, 9-8 (7-5).

"They played good doubles," Mandeau said. "They lost to a good team. They just came up a little short."

In singles action, Blake, the No. 1 player in the nation, bounced back for a 6-2, 6-3 victory over No. 17 Daniel Andersson at the top singles slot.

The Rams came back, though. Manuel Kropfreiter defeated Passarella, 6-4, 6-3, for what would be their last point of the match.

But that wasn't evident at the time.

Majmudar and Joe Green, Harvard's Nos. 2 and 5, respectively, both dropped the first sets in their matches before posting eventual wins.

Doran came through for the Crimson at No. 3 singles with a 6-3, 6-4 win.

To put the Crimson up 3-2 in the match, Clark defeated the Rams' Ollie Lundberg, 6-3, 7-5.

"Scott Clark put on a good display of changing the pace and moving the ball around the court," Mandeau said.

With Majmudar and Green still on the court, the Crimson had two chances left to put VCU away.

Majmudar was the first done and the first to victory, winning 3-6, 6-2, 6-3.

Green would take the final point of the day with a tie-breaking win in the third set of his match.

Harvard's next match is Thursday at the Blue-Gray National Invitational in Montgomery Invitational.

The Crimson was looking forward to a weekend playing outdoors. Unfortunately, the weather moved play indoors.

"We wanted to get some outdoor matches in before the Blue-Gray tournament," Mandeau said.