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Netmen Chew on Brown, Yale and Penn St.

Tennis

The Harvard men's tennis team swept a busy three-match weekend which could be compared to an Oreo cookie: the good stuff came in the middle.

The netmen chomped on Brown and Penn St. on Friday and Sunday afternoons, respectively, enjoying two routine 9-0 victories.

"Thanks for the whitewash," the Nittany Lion coach said calmly to Harvard Skipper Dave Fish after the embarrassing loss. "I appreciate your team being so patient with us."

It almost seemed as if Penn St. came to Cambridge expecting to crumble, and the prospect of losing apparently never occurred to Harvard, now 5-0 in EITA competition Brown presented even less trouble in Providence.

Harvard's 6-3 triumph over Yale in New Haven, however, didn't come easily, and, for that reason the win was something to be savored. Four games into the singles competition, the Bulldogs--victors earlier this season over Crimson nemesis Princeton--held a 3-1 advantage.

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Second-seeded Captain Adam Beren, fourth-seeded Alex Seaver and fifth-seeded freshman Dave Beckman all bowed to their Eli opponents. Only second-ranked Warren Grossman managed a win, dispatching Yale's Alberto Franco, 6-3, 6-2.

But the momentum soon swung in the Crimson's direction, when Harvard's number-one player. All-American Howard Sands, and sixth-ranked sophomore Rob wheeler pulled out three-set victories, knotting the match at three wins apiece.

Fish said afterwards that Sands' 6-2, 2-6, 6-1 decision over Martin Wostenholme--a Canadian Davis Cup player--displayed the quickness, control and ability to make "the big shots," which have escaped him in several recent matches.

The doubles teams of Sands-Beren, Rob Loud Grossman and Beckman-Wheeler all downed their Bulldog adversaries to push Harvard over the top.

"To pull it back to three-all giving us a chance to win, showed tremendous character," said Fish. "Our team has come a long, long way to be able to do that."

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