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."

Kaufman's easygoing outlook is contagious.

"St. makes the whole thing a better experience for everyone," Boss says.

But no matter how much friendship and team camaraderic develop, problem can arise when it all comes down to who's going to be on the court and who's going to be on the bench. Predictably, there was some potential trouble in paradise this spring as the team began to compete for starting positions.

Kaufman found herself fighting for one of the two remaining singles slots with sophomore Kirsten Beske and newcomer Austrian.

"It was a potentially uneasy situation," Austrian says. "But she's such a friendly person that she made it [the situation] totally congenial."

Although she was on the brink of being unseated from her starting spot. Kaufman rose above the pressure.

"There was a lot of tension--but she didn't feel any tension, because she's a 100 percent team player," Austrian says.

Kaufman plays for kicks, and for the team, but she is still a fierce competitor.

"You'll get a fight from her to the very last point every time," Usher says.

Perhaps her most impressive victory this season was a come-from-behind three-set at Santa Barbara--a match the team needed to squeak out its 5-4 victory.

"She just gutses out a lot of matches," Boss says.

And Kaufman, who has led her team to a 5-3 record thus far (1-0 in the Ivies), is one tough competition. "She'll play sick, she'll play hurt," Usher says, "and you can count on her, day in and day out to give 110 percent."

Even when she's not scrapping out on the court, Kaufman can be counted on for her friendship. "Everybody just feels so much closer to her than anyone else on the team, Vigna says.

Kaufman always rolls out the welcome mat to freshman. "I didn't feel like a freshman, a newcomer," Austrian says, "Everyone gets along with her--I don't know what we'll do when she's gone."

Good question. One thing is for certain, though--there'll be some big sneakers to fill.