Netwomen Eke Out 5-4 Win Over B.U.

The whole process could have been a lot cleaner, but then, the Crimson women's tennis team will take their wins any way they can get them. They took yesterday's match against the Boston University Terriers the hard way, sweeping the three doubles matches to eke out a 5-4 victory.

Anticipating an easy team win, Crimson coach Peter Felske decided to give ailing Erica Shulman, his usual number three player, the afternoon off. The process backfired, and Felske found his charges trailing 4-2 after the six singles matches.

With Shulman out, each of the players in the final four singles slots had to move up one position on the ladder. The jump proved to be a little too much, as captain Martha Roberts, Meg Meyer, Debbie Kalish and Abby Meiselman all lost tough matches.

The day started innocently enough, with number one Tiina Bougas wasting no time in nuking Johanna Sleeper, 6-0, 6-0. Bougas' big serve and deep backhand volleys simply overwhelmed her opponent.

Number two Maria Pe quickly followed suit, cruising to a 6-3, 6-1 victory over her Terrier opponent. But from there, it was all downhill for the Crimson singles stalwarts.

Ambiguity

Roberts played an eminently uninspired match, losing to Deirdre O'Hallahan, 1-6, 1-6. The Quincy House senior ambivalently discussed her performance after it was all over: "I played well, but I didn't play well. I just wasn't using my head."

Neither, apparently, were any of the other Harvard singles players. Meyer fell to Lisa Darland, while on an adjacent court Kalish lost her match to the Eagles number five, 1-6, 4-6. Finally, at number six, Meiselman lost a tightly contested match to Dina Anderson, 3-6, 4-6. Like Roberts, she was nothing if not ambivalent: "I walked away not feeling much of anything except bummed."

The four singles defeats left the ultimate outcome of the match up to the three doubles matches, and the Crimson pairs rose to the occasion. Roberts and Pe took a "fun match" from O'Hallahan and Sleeper, 6-4, 6-4, while Bougas and Shulman regained momentum in the third set to cop a 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 win.

Finally, after the rest of the matches were over and most of the team had gone home, Kalish and Meyer swept two sets to win third doubles and clinch the team title for the Crimson.