Penn Hosts Courtmen In Crucial Ivy Match

In today's league opener, the Harvard tennis team is the underdog at Penn. Last year, Penn lost its only league match to Harvard, 4-5, here.

The Crimson's big challenge today will be on Penn's hard-surfaced courts. The Quakers are the only ones in the league who do not play their home matches on clay courts.

Anticipating the change in surfaces, the Crimson practiced yesterday on hard courts. Both two and four years ago, when Harvard went down to Penn, it rained in Cambridge three days straight before the matches. Harvard then did not have an opportunity to practices on hard courts and was beaten, 4-5, on both occasions.

One Quaker who is especially likely to trouble Harvard today is number one man, Hugh Curry. Last spring, he defeated Crimson captain John Levin in two straight sets. Another very good player is Penn senior Spencer Burke, who performs in the number two slot.

'Underdogs'

Crimson coach Jack Barnaby said yesterday. "Since we're underdogs, we have everything to gain and nothing to lose."

Harvard's 7-2 victory over Amherst here on Thursday gave the team some of the momentum it needs to face Penn. The two matches the Crimson lost were to Amherst's number two and three men. Both are sophomores who beat their Harvard freshman opponents last year.

Number two Rocky Jarvis fell to Mike Pelletier 3-6, 3-4. Terry Oxford, the third man for the Crimson, lost 5-7, 3-6 to Tom Suker.

Levin beat Amherst's Rich Steketee, 7-5, 6-2. Excitable number four man, Larry Terrell, played the most games in the singles and won 9-7, 6-3.

No Sweat

Bill Washauer and Steve Devereux, both improving rapidly, had the least difficulty. They completely shut out their opponents except for one game that Washauer's opponent managed to win.

The Crimson blanked the Lord Jeffs in the three doubles matches. The Harvard units all appeared to play much better as tandems than their Amherst counter-parts.