Junior Meg Meyer and freshman Kristen Mertz could not hold off Dartmouth's Karen Loeffler and Missy Morris in the final match of yesterday's Crimson-Big Green endurance contest, and the women's tennis team fell, 5-4, in Hanover, N.H.

"We thought we could have pulled it off," Meyer said after the match, but Dartmouth made fine use of an unusually slow surface and a capricious no-ad scoring system to bring the Crimson its seventh loss in ten matches and its third straight Ivy defeat.

The afternoon opened on a promising note with freshman Betsy Richmond downing Pam Banholzer, 1-6, 6-0, 7-6, (5-0) in a re-match of the New England championship quarterfinals this fall, which Richmond also won.

But Harvard fell in the second, third and fourth singles positions, and it was up to the numbers five and six to keep the raquetwomen in the running.

Kris Mertz at number five, and Leslie Miller, at six, did just that. Mertz gutted out a 7-6, 7-6 triumph over Loeffler, and Miller came back to dump Missy "Don't call me Ms." Morris, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3.

Dartmouth entertained the Crimson in tomb-like Leverone Gym about which coach Peter Felske said, "If you think it's dreary in Palmer-Dixon [the Crimson's home court], you should see Leverone Gym."

Martha Roberts and Richmond combined to eliminate Jody Awad and Susan Podolsky, 6-1, 6-1. Roberts had dropped her second singles contest to Awad, 6-4, 6-4.

In second doubles, sophomore Libby Pierpont and senior Sally Roberts fell to Banholzer and Allison Hibbert 6-1, 6-2.

Newly-elected sophomore captain Meg Meyer dropped the third singles, 7-6, 6-3. and freshman Abby Meiselman lost at fourth singles to Alice Van Neter, 7-6, 6-3.

"We were pleased that we are on a part with Dartmouth, the New England champs this fall," Meyer said afterwards, but the Crimson has yet to drop any of the giants in Ivy League women's tennis.

Harvard meets Boston College at Soldiers Field Wednesday, and Yale, another very tough Ivy squad, comes to Cambridge for a match on Sunday