4 doubles--McKinley and A. Cioth (P) def. Bunis and Horne, 6-3, 6-4

5 doubles--Low and Kushma (P) def. Arnos and Fishwick, 6-3, 6-1

Crimson tennis player Andy Chaikovsky likes to respond to excuse-makers with an old Ukrainian saying his father taught him: "If grandmother had wheels, she'd be trolley car." During Harvard's showdown match with powerhouse Princeton at the Palmer Dixon courts yesterday, there were enough "ifs" and excuses to form a fleet of trolley cars. But unfortunately for the Crimson, most of the close matches got away as the Tigers clinched the Eastern League tennis crown with a 7-2 victory.

Seven of the nine matches either went to three sets or included set-deciding tiebreakers--and Princeton, proving itself worthy of its number-20 national ranking, gutted out victories in five of those seven.

Harvard's only triumphs came at sixth singles, where freshman Bob Horne remained unbeaten on the year with a straight-set win, and first singles, where senior captain Todd Lundy--playing the last major match of his stellar career--pulled his classic match with Tiger co-captain Tom Brightfield out of the fire when he won on the final point of a third-set tiebreaker.

The rest of the matches, though, were a frustrating mix of ifs, ands, and buts, as the visitors swiped four of the six singles matches to set up the kill, and then polished the Crimson off with three straight-set doubles victories.

"We gave it a good shot," Lundy said afterward, "and we could have done it with a couple of key points either way, but they really are very good."

The win moved Princeton to 13-3 overall, 8-0 league, while Harvard dropped to 9-5 overall, 5-2 league.

Princeton third singles man Jim Zimmerman opened the competition by crunching his big lefty serve and complementing it with some adequate groundstrokes to the tune of a 6-3, 6-4 win over Chaikovsky.

Horne evened things up by squeezing past Tiger veteran Mike Kushma in two sets when Kushma netted Horne's serve at four-all in the second-set tiebreaker. The solid frosh kept his rookie slate perfect (6-0) with the win.

Harvard's other super-frosh, second singles man Don Pompan, found the going tougher. Playing some of the best tennis seen at Palmer Dixon this year, Pompan nevertheless took one on the chin when Tiger co-captain came alive and "zoned" late in the third set, brilliantly reeling off five of the last six games to win, 6-1, 6-7, 7-5.

Pompan looked to be on the verge of winning when he broke the massive Tiger's serve at two-all in the third. But Gross suddenly exploded, and he had his power game clicking so well that Pompan could do little else but fight it out to the end. Princeton, suddenly, was in control.

As the second round of singles players took to the courts, then, the visitors held a 2-1 edge, and Harvard virtually needed a sweep of the remaining singles matches to have a chance for victory.

The sweep was not forthcoming. Steve Meister gave the Princetonians their third win when he fought off a pair of set points in the second set of his fifth singles match versus Kevin Shaw, then polished off Shaw with a 5-3 tiebreaker to win, 6-4, 7-6.

The next contest of soap opera proportions came at number four, where Scott Walker, still hobbled by a sprained right ankle, dropped a tearjerker of a match to Princeton frosh Leif Shiras.