Netmen Defend New England Championship Today

Harvard's tennis team begins its battle to retain the New England area championship this morning, in the first of three days of matches at Amherst.

The Crimson, which tied for second place in the Eastern League in regular season competition, is given a good chance to win the tournament this weekend.

Each team sends six singles players to the championship--two for each of three divisions--as well as three doubles teams.

The Crimson's A division contestants will be sophomore Harris Masterson and senior Ken Lindner. Masterson, Harvard's pace-setter throughout the season, will probably be seeded in the draw to be announced this morning.

In B division competition, Tom Loring and John Ingard will probably both be seeded.

Randy Barnett will also probably be seeded in the C division.

Harvard will send its three top doubles teams from regular-season play to the matches. Lindner and Masterson, who suffered one of their rare defeats in the course of the team's victory Tuesday at Yale, will play first doubles.

In regular-season play, Harvard came up with a 10-2 record in the north division, tied with Princeton and Penn and behind only Columbia.

The Columbia team delivered a crushing blow to Crimson hopes for the League championship during the first week of competition, beating Harvard by an overwhelming 9-0.

Crimson Captain Chris Nielsen called that loss "esthetically traumatic." It was, at least, traumatic enough to influence Harvard's next match, at Princeton.

The Tigers edged out that one, 5-4. Since then, Harvard has won steadily, building to its rout of the Elis this week.

Its toughest competition had been expected to come from Dartmouth and Penn. The Crimson massacred both, humiliating Penn by an 8-1 score two weeks ago.

About tomorrow's match Crimson manager Claire Stuart said last night, "It's hard to tell till we get the draw, but I think we have a good chance to win."