The Harvard women's tennis team stopped Syracuse before the Orangemen ever got started.

Harvard captured a 5-0 victory against Syracuse yesterday at Beren Tennis Center. It was the Crimson's first home-match since February 27.

Because the Crimson has to play two teams today; the match was stopped after Harvard won the fifth game.

It is the third-straight year that the Crimson has shut out Syracuse.

"I think we played pretty well," sophomore Jamie Henikoff said. "We were really psyched because it was our first home-match this spring. It's nice playing on our own courts and in front of our fans."

The Crimson opened against the Orangemen by winning all three doubles matches convincingly. It then proceeded to win the two singles games to clinch its 12th victory of the season.

All five of Harvard's wins were in straight sets.

At number-two doubles, Christina Dragomirescu and Co-Captain Kathy Mulvehal literally served their way to victory. The duo won all 12 of its serves en route to a 6-0 victory in the first set. Harvard gave up only seven points in the first set.

The second set was a little tighter, as the Crimson captured a 6-3 triumph against Carrie Bentzel and Chris Chiminello to win the match. Dragomiescu and Mulvehal's service games were too much for Syracuse, along with every other facet of their execution.

The Crimson won 31 of its serves, while losing only six. It was only fitting that Dragomirescu ended the match with an ace.

Harvard also dominated at the net, continually scoring volley, overhead and cross-court winners at ease.

"Mulvey and Drago served and volleyed tremendously well," Harvard coach Ed Krass said. "They played an excellent match."

At first doubles, Henikoff and Amy deLone dropped the first game of the first set to Kathy Bradford and Carol Kraus, but rallied to win the next six games.

With the score tied at 3-3, the Crimson stormed to win three of the next four games. Both players served well and dominated play at the net.

"Jamie returned the ball really well," Krass said, "while A.D. [deLone] Volleyed well. There were a lot of good touch volleys. They're a powerful number-one combination, who will need to be feared here on out."