Tennis is a state of mind. It is a sport where a fierce desire to win can push a good player to great things. When one man can inspire that confidence and pride in a teammate, an upset is in the making. When he can do it to a whole squad, small miracles are possible.

Ten years ago this spring the captain of a good Harvard tennis team raised it to greatness in the last and most important match of the season. On May 14, 1958, Dale Junta led the way to a stunning 6-3 upset of previously undefeated, unchallenged Yale, in what Coach Jack Barnaby has called "probably the greatest tennis victory in Harvard's history."

A native of San Leandro, California, Junta had come to Harvard on a full Navy scholarship. Because he was committed to an eight-week cruise each summer, Junta had almost no time to practice or enter tournaments. He was a strong natural athlete with incredibly powerful strokes, especially his serve and overhead. The summer before his senior year he had taken a week off from his job and without much practice had won the National Hard Courts Junior Championship. He had also won the New England Intercollegiates his sophomore and junior years.

Junta was a superb captain. As the number one singles and doubles player on the team for three years, he could simply have let his outstanding play be his only example to the squad, but Junta led the team emotionally as well. His encouragement of his teammates and his confidence in them had sparked the squad to an undefeated Ivy slate and a 15-3 overall record before the Yale finale.

No one was supposed to beat Yale for years. What UCLA is supposed to be to today's college basketball, Yale was to eastern college tennis for the years 1958-60. Sophomore strength was so great that the number one varsity player from the year before had dropped to number six to make way for the plethora of gifted sophomores.

Talented Donald Dell led the Elis. Already considered the best college player in the East, Dell had made an excellent showing on the tournament circuit the previous summer. In one tournament he had beaten world-ranked Ashley Cooper in straight sets in the semi-finals and had lost a close, five-set match to Ham Richards in the finals. Further evidence of Yale's power showed in the fact that Gene Scott, who later joined Dell on the Davis Cup team, was then only fourth singles.

The Harvard-Yale showdown loomed as the biggest test of the season for both teams, as the Eastern League and Big Three titles depended on the outcome. Two weeks before the match Junta began to talk quietly to each team member about the importance of winning against Yale. The Bulldogs had breezed through their schedule and were patiently waiting to polish off their Cambridge rivals. Harvard had won for the last two years and the Elis were bent on revenge.

In the match itself Junta set the example for the rest of the team. Showing no signs of the back injury which had plagued him all season, Junta was spectacular against previously undefeated Dell. He easily took the first set, 6-1, breaking Dell's serve three times. The lanky Yale sophomore evened the match with a 6-2 victory in the second set. Dell jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the final set and looked as though he would go all the way. But Junta, refusing to quit, bore down and won five straight games, the set, and the match.

At number two Larry Sears of Harvard demolished Jon Clark in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3. Fourth singles Tim Gallwey broke through in the eight game of the third set to upset undefeated Gene Scott, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4. Allan Goldman rounded out the singles coup at number five with a three-set surprise victory over previously unbeaten Sandy Wiener.

In the doubles Junta's personal influence kept the Harvard momentum going. Gallwey and Fred Vinton tripped up Scott and Tom Freiberg, 5-7, 17-15, 9-7, while Junta and Sears triumphed over Dell and Clark in three tight sets, 8-6, 3-6, 6-3. It was fitting that the deciding point of the entire meet was a backhand overhead putaway by Junta, one of the hardest shots in tennis.

The victory was a great one for Junta, a team leader in every sense. In four years of play against Yale he won eight out of eight singles and doubles matches and played first man on four victorious teams. It came as no surprise that in 1958 Dale Junta won the William J. Bingham Award, Harvard's highest athletic honor.