When a team wins four straight national intercollegiate championships and 40 consecutive mathes, its victories are anticipated like potatoes at the Union.

That's the bind on Harvard's squash team, which opens its season at 4:30 p.m. today in Hemenway Gymnasium against Navy.

"Though nice to have, that winning streak isn't worth a grain of salt when a new season begins," Coach Jack Barnaby constantly points out. "Like the other inexperienced, developing teams in our league," he adds, "Harvard will have to prove itself."

The role is not a new one for Barnaby. Every year he digs into his supply of inexperienced prep school graduates and converted tennis players to find replacements for his top seniors. Last year Barnaby had to fill gap left by a graduating national champion and four other three-year lettermen. This year he is without his top four players, all of whom have graduated.

Charmed

But Barnaby leads a charmed existence. Last year's squash team edged both Princeton and Penn by 5-4 scores. Princeton was leading the match at one time by a 4-1 margin and was ahead 13-7 in the final game of the deciding match. These last two points never came for Princeton last year, nor the year before, when the Tigers had a 14-10 lead in the deciding match.

Over the past four years, Harvard's winning streak has been within one point of being wiped out at least a dozen times.

Barnaby's coaching record is appalling Over the past 10 years, his teams have won 102 matches and lost four. They've won six of the nine Ivy titles and never finished lower than second. In his 25 years as varsity coach, only one Barnaby team has lost as many as three matches.

This year's team hasn't the likes of the Romer Holleran, Terry Robinson, Al Terell, and Bill morris -- a foursome which was never bettered in a team contest. But along with Captain Dinny Adams, Barnaby has the nation's two outstanding sophomores, Joe Gonzalez and Rick Sterne, to fill the top positions.

Adams, whose sharp strokes have made him one of the most stylish collegiate players, has lost but one match in his varsity career. He was the lone sophomore to break into the starting lineup two years ago, played at number four most of last season, and will start at number one today.

Gonzalez, the current national junior champion, will play behind Adams at number two. Sterne, last year's freshman intercollegiate champ, is in the third spot. There will probably be some shuffling in these first three positions before the season is far gone. On the freshman team last year, Sterne played number one, and Gonzalez was second. Neither came close to losing a match.

A Barnaby Product

Harvard a fourth player is lanky Todd Wilkinson, a Barnaby product who had never played squash before his freshman year at Harvard. At number seven last season Wilkinson had an amazing record, winning all his matches by 3-0 score. He should not have much difficulty adjusting three notches up the ladder.

At five and six, the Crimson has Steve Simpson and Craig Stapleton. Simpson is the rugged little left-hander who won the crucial fifth match at Penn last year. Stapleton, the top freshman two years ago, moved up to number nine on the varsity last season. Much of the team's chances for success depends on whether Stapleton and the other players in the middle of the ladder can win with the same consistency they did at lower spots last year.

Benjamin Doubtful

A doubtful starter against Navy is Dave Benjamin, last year's number six players, who has been plagued with a back injury.

The rest of the varsity lineup will be filled by senior Peter Brooks, junior Matt Hall, and sophomore Gordie Black. Brooks and Adams are the only two-year lettermen on the team.

Navy, with a couple of rising sophomores and basically the same team as last year, should give Harvard a real challenge especially in the lower positions. Known for an agressive, scrappy style of squash. Navy lost to Princeton by a close 6-3 score last year.

Harvard opens its Ivy schedule against an inexperienced Cornell team at 2 p.m. Saturday in Hemenway Gymnasium.