For the Harvard men's tennis team, it was a week of tune-ups in the sun.

The netmen, who travelled to California for a tournament and a series of dual matches, came away with a 5-3 record and a full head of steam going into their Eastern Intercollegiate Tennis Association season opener this week.

"I'm extremely pleased," Harvard Coach Dave Fish said of the nineday, eight-match journey. "This is about as good of an experience as we've ever had out there, We lost two matches that could have gone either way."

"We are all pretty pleased with how it went," added Co-Captain Dave Beckman. "On the whole we were playing a lot better by the end of the week."

"You definitely improve much more when you're playing lots of matches," he said.

The Disappointment

If there was a disappointment for the Crimson, it came at the tournament held at the University of California-Irvine.

Harvard, ranked 20th nationally in a poll taken before the tournament, was the second seed in the field of 16 teams from all across the country. The netmen got by I resno state, 5-4, in the opening round, but then ran into Chapman College.

The Cantabs were drained from the previous day's squeaker .

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victories from Arkansas Rock and Wisconsin to stag fifth place.

The Crimson won its first dual match 5-4, over Santa Barbara but then had to face three top-26 school in a row.

Second-ranked University of Southern California was the first of the three. The netmen played extremely well, and were even tied with the Trojans after the singles competition, before losing a 6-3 decision.

Cal-State Long Beach, ranked 18th in the nation, followed USC's example, handing Harvard a 6-3 loss. The Crimson ended the trip by soundly defeating Minnesota, yet another top-20 caliber squad, 7-2.

Darryl Laddin and Peter Palandjian, playing sixth and fourth singles respectively, highlighted the individual play, each going 6-2.

"Laddin and Palandjian had really outstanding trips," Fish said.

Two things stood out from the trip the playing experience gained, and the depth the Crimson showed.

"We really got match tough--eight matches in nine days--playing that much has to help you," I addin said.

"Overall, we maintained a really excellent attitude throughout the trip something which is really hard to do," Fish added.

Harvard was most impressive in its top-to-bottom strength. Every team member shone on several occasions during the week.

"It was very good that we had a really balanced performance," Scott said.

In fact, Fish faces a problem that he has "seven or eight strong doubles players" and only six slots for them. "It's a matter of working to find the combination. The coal said.

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