The varsity tennis team, its ranks depleted by graduation and scholastic troubles, journeys to Princeton this weekend to play in the Eastern Intercollegiate Tennis League's fall tournament.
Captain and number one player Paul Sullivan graduated last June, as did Doug Walter, a varsity player for three years. Chum Steele, who played number four last year as a sophomore, is on probation and will not be able to play in matches this fall.
That leaves just half of last year's team still available. But two sophomores, Dave Benjamin and Southern Rhodesian Clive Kileff, are expected to take up some of the slack.
Kileff, in fact, is currently the number two player on the team, behind senior Frank Ripley, last year's number two player. Ripley and Kileff will make up the Crimson's entry in the first of three separate EITL tournaments to be played in Princeton today and tomorrow.
Vic Niederhoffer and captain Sandy Walker will represent Harvard in the number two tournament, while Benjamin and Dean Peckham will probably play in the third grouping. Peckham has been sick this week, and if he can't make the trip, Bob Inman will play.
Three Crimson doubles teams will also play in the tournament. Ripley and Niederhoffer will play in the top position, Peckham and Inman number two, and Kileff and Benjamin number three.
Harvard faces some tough competition in the tournament; undefeated Princeton has most of its top players returning, including Herb Fitzgibbon, the best college player in the East last year. The Tigers are definite favorites to win the tournament; last year they defeated the Crimson 7-2.