M. Tennis Be Illin'

Handicapping may be the norm in golf and horse-racing, but the Harvard men's tennis team has made a habit of it against EITA (Eastern Intercollegiate Tennis association) opponents this year.

With only three EITA matches left the Crimson has yet to play a conference match with a full line-up, giving opponents a fighting chance against what is normally (read: when healthy) a dominating team.

While a shorthanded line up has been good enough to handle most opponents, Yale proved too much for the wounded Harvard team, which fell 4-3 to the bulldogs Friday afternoon at the Cullman Indoor Courts in New Haven, Connecticut.

The Crimson bounced back on Saturday with a 5-2 win against Brown at Providence, but the earlier loss left the Crimson's chances at getting to the EITA tournament up in the air.

Harvard was coming off two big wins against Princeton and West Virginia and at the outset of the Yale match it looked like the Crimson would prevail again, despite the absence of its three top players.

The crimson took the doubles point with wins at first and third doubles.

Captain Marshall Burroughs and freshman Mitty Arnold won 8-5 at first doubles, and sophomores Howard Kim and Daniel Chung took third doubles 8-6.

With the doubles point secured, the Crimson increased its lead to 3-0 with wins by Arnold at third singles (7-6, 6-1) and sophomore Adam Valkin at sixth singles (7-6, 7-6).

The tide turned quickly, though, as the Bulldogs earned their first point at first singles, where the Crimson's Burroughs lost to Adam Mandell in two tiebreakers, 7-6 and 7-6.

The Bulldogs then completed the comeback with three straight three set victories at second, fourth and fifth singles to hand the Crimson its second EITA loss of the year.

Chung lost at second singles (6-1, 1-6, 6-4), freshman Martin Olsson fell at fourth singles (6-4, 0-6, 7-5), and Kim was defeated at fifth singles (1-6, 6-0, 7-5).

"With our guys out we knew it was going to be a tough match," Arnold said. "But we might have been a little too relaxed after our wins against Princeton and West Virginia."

"We were really confident going into the match," Chung said. "Maybe we were a little too confident."

The disappointing loss, however, did not appear to affect the crimson on Saturday against the bears as Harvard took two of the three doubles matches and four of the six singles contests to earn the 5-2 victory.

The Crimson were forced to play the Brown match without captain Burroughs at first singles. Burroughs suffered a minor injury against Yale, and after playing in the doubles match against Brown sat out the singles match.

The singles line-up again was shifted forward as Chung, who would normally play fifth singles in a healthy Crimson line-up, took over the first singles spot.

The revamped singles line-up, which included three freshmen (Arnold, Olsson, and Josh Hausman) proved strong enough to earn the victory.

"The freshmen have really handled everything well," Chung said. "They've really held their own."

The weekend results left the Crimson 5-2 in the EITA, still without a berth at the regional tournament which it will host on the weekend of May 14-15.

Harvard is still the master of its own fate, though, going into tomorrow's Dartmouth match at the Beren Tennis Center.

"If we beat Dartmouth we'll get into the tournament," Chung said. "They're the only team that beat us last year so we're looking for revenge."

Looking to the bright side of the Crimson's injury-plagued season, it appears that sophomore Todd Meringoff and junior Umesha Wallooppillai may return to the line-up by the end of the week.

Untill then, though, the Crimson will have to rely on its patchwork line-up to get it to the regional tournament where, if healthy, Harvard can still compete with anyone.