An 8-1 victory that wasn't really as close as the score indicates? That's pretty much what happened yesterday at Palmer Dixon as the Harvard women's tennis team took seven matches in straight sets from a Hampshire College squad that never had a chance.

Let's talk about the close ones. Harvard's only loss came at the first doubles position, and it was hardly indicative of the relative strengths of the two squads. Coach Peter Felske sent his regular seven and eight players, Patty Wen and Terry Clarke, against Hampshire's number-one duo of Dede Steele and Brittain Mauk. The stand-ins played well, taking the Hampshire pair to three sets before falling, 5-7, 6-4, 4-6.

'Aggresive'

"I wanted them to have a chance to play a good match, and the Hampshire coach agreed," said Felske. "I was pleased--they played very aggressively," he added.

The only other three-setter came at first singles, where Steele took the Crimson's Martha Roberts to three sets, before succumbing, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

"Steele was very tough mentally--very patient, she kept the ball in play," Felske said last night. "I'm very pleased that Martha got a good match," he added.

"I played okay," Roberts said last night, adding, "She was the only player on their team who could have given any of us a match."

But the nail-biters were more than offset by the other Harvard wins, as no Hampshire player could take more than five games from her Crimson opponent.

Sally Roberts, playing number three due to the illness of Meg Meyer, who regularly occupies that slot, "struggled," at least comparatively speaking, as she downed Annette Duke, 6-3, 6-2.

Libby Pierpont, breaking her three-set-match habit, crushed Kate Gray in the number-two slot, 6-0, 6-2. Leslie Miller at five walloped Marcia Patterson, 2-and-0, and Wen, moving into the sixth position, double-bageled Berit Berquist, 6-0, 6-0.

Captain Katie Ditzler completed the Crimson's singles sweep with an 0-and-3 over Mauk.

The Roberts sisters chalked up another easy win for the Crimson at second doubles, as they trounced Duke and Patterson, bagel and bread stick. Liz Livingston moved up from the J.V. to team with Ditzler at third doubles, and the pair easily waltzed past Gray and Bergquist, 6-2, 6-2.

"We just routined them to death at two through six-played good consistent tennis and let Hampshire make the mistakes," Felske said.

If only 8-1 victories could become routine...