Before the squad starts thinking about the NCAAS, it's got some stiff competition to overcome.

Defending champ Columbia shapes up as the highest hurdle. The Lions didn't lose anybody to graduation from a squad that had a perfect 9-0 league record (17-1 overall) a year ago.

Columbia is already turning some heads again this year. Its 8-1 record includes twin 9-0 trouncings of EITA foes Army and Coryell.

All of which makes April 12, the date Harvard plays host to the Lions, a very important day.

Columbia handed the Crimson its only league loss last year, when it took a comfortable 7-2 decision in New York City. "Last year we were really flat going into Columbia, because we hadn't had a match for two weeks," Fish says. "The team knows more this year."

In addition, with a contest at the University of North Carolina scheduled for this Saturday, the netmen shouldn't be as cold going into this year's showdown.

The Columbia contest, though won't be the only tough one of the season, or even that weekend, for Harvard Penn comes to town the following day, April 13, for another key match-up.

The Quakers who are 5-4 (1-0 EITA) on the year, also visited the Eureka State this spring and played some of the same teams the Crimson did.

Both squads lost to Chapman College; the Cantabs in a close, 5-4, match that the netmen think they could have won, and the Quakers by a tally of 6-3.

Harvard won a 5-4 squeaker against the University of California Santa Barbara, while Penn fell, 8-1.

Princeton is 6-4 (1-0 EITA) in 1985. The Tigers came in 10th at the Irvine tournament, and also lost to Chapman, 5-3. The netmen will end their campaign on May 8 at Princeton.

While the other EITA foes certainly can't be overlooked, it's unlikely that any will present a serious challenge to the Big Four. Of the six, only Yale (6-3) and Brown (5-4) had winning league records last year.

Three contests, two early in the season and one at the end, should decide the fate of the Harvard men's tennis team. And a three-for-three showing will likely mean the squad's fourth EITA title in five years.

"It's the evenest year at the top that I've seen for many years," Fish says of the EITA A crème de la crème.

The netmen hope to be a little more equal than the Lions and Tigers and Quakers.