It happens every year, Members of the Harvard tennis team head south with sheer optimism for their calling card, only to encounter tough southern teams that have been playing outdoor matches since February, before returning home with a couple of wins and a couple of frustrating losses.

This year was no different, as coach Dave Fish worked his troops hard all winter, but emerged with only a 2-3 dual match record and a fourth-place tourney finish on the whirl-wind spring break tour below the Mason-Dixon line.

"I was pretty encouraged," Fish said yesterday, "but it's disappointing in a way because we know we were better than we played down there."

"A lot of those guys have played 20 to 25 matches outdoors already," Fish continued, "so unless we put a wind tunnel in Palmer Dixon, we can't really practice for playing outside."

The swing opened at the Crimson Tide Classic, where Harvard placed fourth in a seven-team field, trailing three powerhouses--victorious host Alabama, Maryland and Division 2 champ Southern Illinois.

Perennials

From there, Fish took his troops to Georgia for their annual loss there, 7-2. Kevin Shaw salvaged singles and doubles wins. Todd Lundy lost in straight sets to nationally-ranked Wes Cash when he dropped a second set tiebreaker, 5-4, and freshman whiz Don Pompan lost in three sets at number two.

The Crimson gutted out two third-set tiebreaker wins at Georgia Tech the next day to string the Yellow Jackets, 6-3.

Scott Walker--moved up to two with Pompan injured--and freshman Bob Horn--at six due to the lineup change--eked out the two final-point victories to give Harvard its first win on 1978.

Furman dished out a 7-2 thrashing later in the week, and Duke's Blue Devils matched that performance on Friday leaving Harvard with three losses.

Foolish Grins

The Crimson snapped out of the losing streak at Wake Forest on April Fool's Day, cruising to four singles victories and one doubles win before high-tailing it out of Winston-Salem during the meaningless third doubles contest in order to catch their plane back.

Wheeling and dealing with a hot hand, sophomore and varsity rookie Greg Kirsch moved up to the five spot and won his match, while four-man Andy Chaikovsky also smoked his opponent to key the 5-4 win over the Deacons.

"The most clutch performance I turned in on the whole trip was driving very fast from Winston-Salem to Raleigh-Durham," the even-tempered captain said yesterday. "That was the most exciting part of the trip," he added.

In the Fast Lane

Although the racquetmen may have been running on empty during parts of the spring break trip, they should be well-fueled and raring to go for the nine-match Eastern League slate, which begins Friday at Palmer Dixon against Navy.

Princeton and Yale loom as the giants in this year's league, but Harvard has played the role of giant-killer more than once in the past.

"I think we learned a lot down South, and we're pretty psyched to do well the rest of the way," Lundy said last night.

And you ain't whistlin' Dixie, Todd.