Harvard's varsity tennis team, after two crucial EITA defeats last weekend, regained the services of captain Ken Lindner yesterday and swept to an easy 9-0 victory over Brown in Providence, R.I., to even its league record at 2-2.
The win marked the Crimson starting lineup's return to full health. In the preceding three matches a flu virus decimated the team, preventing top player Lindner from participating in the key losses to Pennsylvania and defending league champion Columbia.
The Bruins proved helpless before an intact Harvard squad. Their number one seed, David Miller, was out with a sprained wrist, and, missing their only respectable player, the Bruins registered their fourth straight 9-0 league defeat.
Lindner returned to action with a 6-4, 6-2, trouncing of Doug Ebenstein, and junior John Ingard, in Harvard's number two slot, easily disposed of Weldon Rogers in straight sets. Gary Reiner, a sophomore from New Hyde Park, N.Y., demolished Bob Coffin, 6-3, 6-1, in the third singles match.
Chip Baird, in the fourth singles position, downed Andy Arnold, 6-2, 6-3, while John Horn, who recently recovered from a bout with the flu, crushed Kirk Hurlben, 6-1, 6-4. Junior Hugh Hyde thwarted Bruin Warren Eick's second set comeback attempt to earn a 6-1, 7-5, victory at sixth singles.
Close Match
Ebenstein and Rogers played the closest match of the day at number one doubles, but Lindner and senior Gardner Rowbothom protected the Harvard shutout with a 6-4, 7-5 victory. Ingard and Horn, combining at number two doubles, downed Coffin and Arnold, 6-2, 6-2.
The third doubles unit of Reiner and Baird smashed Eick and Ferring, 6-2, 6-4, to end a dismal day for the Bruins. Harvard currently stands 6-4 overall, with EITA victories over Brown and Navy and league losses to the Lions and Quakers.
The netmen have a chance to better their EITA standing today in New Haven, Conn., when they face an innocuous Yale squad. The Elis, excluding yesterday's match against Dartmouth, have earned a 2-4 record, their only wins coming against Wesleyan and Trinity.
Yale boasts one strong player, captain Dan Grossman from Omaha, Neb., but the remainder of the team offers little competition. Grossman, who stands 3-3 this season, earlier this spring defeated Navy's number one player, Kevin Miller, and took Dean Colson of Princeton to three sets before losing.
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