The Radcliffe varsity tennis team, coming off last weekend's victory in the Greater Boston Championships, suffered a 4-3 upset yesterday at the hands of a young Tufts squad.

Captain Lissa Muscatine said after the match that the team was sorely disappointed with the outcome. "We should have won it," she said.

The Crimson was at a disadvantage because of a change in the format for the match, Muscatine said.

Against Tufts no Radcliffe players could participate in more than one match apiece, and the teams played only four singles matches instead of the usual six. Tufts, blessed with superior depth, took advantage of the change and swept all three doubles matches to take the victory.

The Crimson took three of the four singles matches to get off to a good start. First singles player Denise Than was edged out by her opponent in three sets as Tufts took a 1-0 lead.

Muscatine lost her first set, then rallied to take the next two, and evened the score at 1-1.

In the remainder of the singles play, Sally Roberts and Rita Funaro combined to win 24 of 27 games and sweep their respective matches to give Radcliffe a 3-1 lead.

With all of the doubles matches left to play, a Crimson victory seemed assured, but Radcliffe, unable to replay its best players, could not squeeze out another victory in the face of the Jumbos' depth.

All the matches were close, however, with one going down to the last point of the tiebreaker in the third set before Tufts took it all.

In past years, Tufts has been an easy opponent, but the Jumbos' new coach has sought vigorously to bring talent into the program.

The search has apparently paid off; Tufts' first four players were freshmen.

The Radcliffe team finishes its fall competition with a match against Wellesley next week and the New England Championships.