You've got to feel sorry for some guys. Harvard deals out some of its best hands the last couple of weeks--reading period, exams, snow, ice, freezing weather--and what does the Harvard men's tennis team do? Head to California for sun, surf, girls, good vibrations, and all that jazz. Not to mention an extremely impressive showing in last week's ITCA National Team Championships.

"We've established ourselves among the top 20, if not the top ten teams in the country," said captain Adam Beren after a 5-2 consolation finals' loss to the University of Texas placed the Crimson ninth in a field of the sixteen best tennis-playing schools in the country.

"Our goal is to end up top ten in the country this year, and number one next year." Beren added. "This helped our chances. It showed we can play with any team in the country; we thought we could before, but now we're sure."

Slated for Little Rock, Arkansan, and the National Indoors just a few weeks ago, the squad changed itinerary to head for Los Angeles and the Bruins' Sunset Courts when the Indoors fell through for lack of funding. Every top-level tennis program in the country followed them.

One element in the Crimson's rating itself among the collegiate tennis elite rests on its very invitation to the Indoors and ITCAs, and another on its performance agains fifth seeded Clemson in the tournament's first round.

Despite dropping behind 4-2 after singles competition (Alex Seaver's win in a third-settiebreaker at number six kept the Crimson in the match), Harvard Battled back to 4-4 in the doubles only to lose a 5-4 heartbreaker when Warren Grossman and Rob Loud dropped the closely-contested last match of match of the day.

Even if you thought you'd heard all the firsts in Crimson tennis last year-find Ivy championship in ten years, first BCAC championship and NCAA bid since c. 1900, find All-American (Howard Sands) ever--the squad produced another one on its journey through the ITCAs consolation bracket. After dismissing Southern IIIinois--Edwardsville 6-2 to advance to the semifinals, Harvard edged Wichita State 5-3 for its first ever victory over a nationally-ranked team. Beren and Rob Loud keyed the win against the fifteenth-ranked Shockers, coming from way back to capture the decisive doubles match.

NOTEBOOK: German measles plagued Sands throughout the tournament, and though he didn't lose a match with partner Mike Terner at number one doubles, the illness affected his play.

"I had a really bad headache for three or four days. I was really stiff, and my neck hurt," Sands said yesterday. "I couldn't understand it, but then a friend I spend a lot of time with in L.A. (Sands' home) called me and told me she had it. I went to an M.D. here and he said without a doubt I did too."

"Luckily the only time it's really dangerous is when it comes in contact with pregnant women."