The best player on the team isn't always the captain.

Debbie Kaufman, three-time captain of the Harvard women's tennis team, is the first to admit it.

"People didn't elect me on my playing ability," Kaufman says.

As a freshman, Kaufman played behind highly-recruited classmates Prika Smith and Elizabeth Evans. Kaufman, who remembers having to contact the coach herself as a high school senior, was nonetheless elected captain by her teammates at the end of her first season on the squad.

The reason for her election is that Kaufman is a singularly unselfish player in a sometimes selfish sport.

"Deb is out there to win for the team," says freshman Cyndy Austrian.

Tennis is an individual sport, where personal prowess often out-shines team success. Consequently, top players frequently emphasize individual goals.

"Deb is different," says sophomore Robin Boss. "She's better at making the team work, and not as concerned with her personal game."

Even in the heat of a match, Kaufman often has one eve on the ball and the other on her teammates.

"She'll be playing her match and watching the others at the same time," sophomore Kathy Vigna says.

Kaufman has compiled 107 wins in her Harvard career, and as far as Harvard Coach Don Usher can remember, she is the only three-time captain in Harvard women's tennis history.

Nonetheless, from the beginning of her career at summer camp 10 years ago, success has not been her reason for playing.

"I don't know whether I actually thought I had a talent for it. I just liked it," Kaufman says.

At are 12, Kaufman played because she liked it. As a senior in college, her motives haven't changed much.

"Her whole philosophy is that you're out there to have fund and if you win, you win, and if you don't, you don't," Vigna says. "As long as you try your hardest."