A New Year of Upset-Minded Experience

Where would you rather be at this moment--sunny Texas, with temperatures in the 60s and 70s, or here in Cambridge with temperatures hovering around freezing and up to three feet of snow on the ground?

Well, the Harvard men's tennis team (2-1 overall, 0-0 EITA) is among the lucky ones as it gears up for the Corpus Christi Invitational, scheduled to take place this Friday through Monday.

The Crimson already defeated two top-20 teams last week in the National Indoor Team Championships (NITC), held in Louisville, Kentucky, in its first action of the spring season, and its only loss came to top-ranked Georgia by a 5-2 count.

Ranked 33rd going into the NITC, Harvard knocked off number 15 Texas Christian University, 4-3, and number nine Louisiana State University, 5-2.

"Our performance definitely reflects that the team is maturing," captain Marshall Burroughs said. "Last year's freshmen and sophomores are showing more poise."

If there is anything different about this year's version of the Harvard men's tennis team, it is the experience that the players now possess. All the key players are returning.

"Last year we were a young team that didn't really know where we fit in," said sophomore Todd Meringoff, the team's current top-seeded player. "We're more experienced this year and have higher expectations."

Sounds like last year's squad didn't do too well, huh?

Maybe not for the Crimson, but a three-way share with Yale and Dartmouth for the EITA title (the Ivies plus Army and Navy) isn't chicken feed. Prior to last year's split, Harvard had won four straight EITA titles and seven of the past nine.

The Crimson again comes into this year's campaign as the consensus EITA favorite and should not have too much trouble winning as long as it keeps it focus.

"Every time we play an EITA match, the other team is very fired up," Burroughs said. "We have to stay focused with every match we play, whether that team is in the top 20 or not."

The pairings that 18th-year Head Coach Dave Fish selected at the NITC last week will probably last for the majority of the season, unless the injury bug happens to hit.

The top six singles players are Meringoff (1), junior Andrew Rueb (2), Burroughs (3), junior Umesha Wallooppillai (4), sophomore Daniel Chung (5) and freshman Mitty Arnold (6). Senior Adam Meister and sophomore Howard Kim are mainstays in the doubles matches, pairing up with the singles players.

One thing that will differ in match play this year is that the three doubles matches will only be worth one point, with the team winning the majority of the matches taking home the point. The six singles matches each count for one point as well.

In any event, the Corpus Christi Tournament (the first match is against Colorado) is a warm-up (literally) for the rest of the season and should give the Crimson some experience against the top teams in the nation.

"This is a chance to play outdoors," Meringoff said. "We are hoping to be a more solid team. Every player has kept up his level of play and has improved."

The short 23-day EITA season begins for Harvard with matches at Pennsylvania and Columbia on April 8-9.