As Jack Reardon begins to settle into his new job as athletic director this week, he won't be the only new face in Harvard sports--the coaches of the Radcliffe tennis and squash teams are new, too.
Taking over for tennis coach Corey Wynn, who has been moved over to help with the men's team, is Peter Felske, a former national junior circuit player who says the racquetwomen will do "a lot of drilling" to prepare for their October 5 opener at Wellesley.
"Speed, strength and stamina are the bedrock" on which the team will build its skills, says Felske, who hopes the team will be tougher and better than last year's squad--which didn't do so badly anyway, finishing at 10-7 for the season.
And although the team has only one returning senior this year, a promising crop of freshmen and seven other returning members, plus newly built courts across the Charles at Soldiers Field, are enough to bring Captain Katie Ditzler to say, "I'm sure we can do ten times better" this year.
Returning to the squad along with Ditzler (number three last year) is number one player Sally Roberts. Leading the crowded field of freshmen, according to coach Felske, are Sally's sister, Martha Roberts, and three other strong newcomers--Libby Pierpont, Meg Meyer, and Lisa Greco.
Moses Invests
North of Soldiers Field, at the smaller courts of Hemenway Gym, the new Harvard women's squash coach is Paul Moses, taking over from Eric Cutler, assistant athletic director, as the squad's first full-time squash director.
"This is really the first year the women are getting the kind of attention the men get," Moses said last week, adding that he hopes to encourage more women to try out for the team, including people who have never played before.
Moses, who has been a club pro in Chestnut Hill and is the squash editor of the New England Tennis Journal, said he and team captain Julia Moore will teach a squash clinic for beginners starting next week. Regular season practice will start in mid-October, before the squad's first home match against Wellesley December 6.
Both the tennis and squash teams will be playing in their share of tournaments this year: The big one for the tennis team will be the Seven Sisters tourney in the spring, and the squash team is looking forward to the collegiate nationals in March at Williams.
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