Vic Niederhoffer is the top-heavy favorite to win the National Intercollegiate Squash Tournament at Dartmouth this weekend, but tough competition, or bad luck might keep Harvard from taking the team title.

Romer Holleran, Johnny Vinton, and Bill Morris will team with Niederhoffer giving Harvard what will probably be the best four-man team. But if any of the four players loses in an early round, Princeton and Army may challenge the Crimson for the team championship.

No one is likely to challenge Niederhoffer, though. "It would take an act of God, like an injury, to keep Vic from winning that title," Coach Jack Barnaby says. He has already beaten his top two rivals this season--Amherst's Tom Poor and Princeton's Pete Svastich--by 3-0 scores. In fact, Neiderhoffer hasn't lost to a college player this year, and he isn't likely to start now.

Holleran, number-two man on Harvard's 1960 team before he took a leave of absence, is probably the key to Harvard's hopes for the team title. "If Romer is playing well, he can knock off some good players and possibly meet Vic in the finals; if he loses early we'll probably lose the tournament," Barnaby explained.

Holleran's Loss Not Encouraging

Holleran's loss to Yale's number two man Bryce Appleton last weekend didn't do much to encourage Barnaby. But Appleton, the Eli captain, was in top form for the Harvard match and barely squeaked past Holleran in five games.

Vinton, whose comeback victory gave Harvard a 5-4 win over Army in the season's first match, and Morris, a former junior champion and number two man most of this year, give Harvard strength in the bottom positions. They have to be given a chance against any player in the tournament short of Poor and Svastich.

Princeton, with Svastich, Frank Satterthwaite, Toby Symington, and John Frazier, probably poses the biggest threat to the Crimson's supremacy, but an Army team sparked by the brothers Oehrlein--Al and Richie--might beat out the Tigers for second. Tom Poor is probably the tournament's second-best player, but Amherst has little talent backing him up