Entering yesterday's contest with the Harvard men's tennis team, Brown had never defeated the Crimson netmen--51 attempts and 51 losses.

Some things never change, and the Bruins left Palmer Dixon Courts following a marathon seven-hour match with loss number 52.

The injury-riddled netmen recorded an exciting 5-4 victory over the Bruins in front of 100 spectators to improve their record to 6-7 (3-1 EITA).

"I'm proud of everyone," Harvard Captain Peter Palandjian said. "This is a proud day in Harvard tennis. We had four of our seven top players out of this game, and we still won."

In the number two singles, Harvard's Arkie Engle scored a straight-sets victory to give the Crimson a lead it would not relinquish.

Engle stormed to a 6-1 win in the first set, breaking Amin Khoury's service three times. In the second set, Engle placed beautiful overhead lobs and perfect drop volleys to jump out to a 5-0 advantage.

Khoury came back to win the next three games, but Engle's service game was on target, as he put the match away with an ace.

Playing at third singles, Paul Palandjian used an aggressive serve and volley game to capture the first set, 6-3, and consistent ground stroke play gave him the second as well, 6-2.

"Me and my guy met eye-to-eye, and he blinked," Palandjian said.

Meanwhile, in the number one singles, Peter Palandjian and Tim Donovan's match finally ended after three hours of play. Palandjian captured a three-set victory to put the Crimson ahead 3-2 at the time.

Palandjian dropped the first set, 6-4, but he responded with a close 7-6 (7-4) victory in the second set. In the final set, Palandjian jumped out to a 3-1 lead, and with an overpowering service game went on to win three of the next four games. He also recorded 17 aces in the match.

"Everyone stuck with it," Palandjian said. "Laddin pulled out a key match for us. We needed his match. We really enjoyed this victory. They tried intimidation tactics, but we kept our heads together."

In the fourth singles, Harvard's Darryl Laddin won what was probably the biggest match of the day. Laddin crushed Nick Jones, 6-3 to give the Crimson a 4-3 lead heading into the doubles.

In the first doubles, Palandjian and Engle continued their dominance in doubles competition with a straight-sets victory over Khoury and Jones. The Bruin duo held their serves to tie the match at 3-3, but that was the last game Brown would win. Harvard captured the second set, 7-5.

Khoury best summed up the match during one of Brown's many frustrating points: "This happens every year." For the 52nd consecutive time, that proved correct.