Eastern cellar-dwellers Cornell and Army marched into Beren Tennis Center this weekend intent on over throwing the ailing 13th-ranked Harvard men's tennis team.

Instead, the Red and Cadets goose-stepped into a firing squad, as the Crimson (9-0 EITA) gunned down both opponents by 9-0 margins, breezing to straight-set wins in every match.

"I was just pleased because the guys turned what could've become a sloppy event into a good tune-up for Princeton," Harvard Coach Dave Fish said, referring to tomorrow's Ivy-deciding match against the undefeated Tigers. "[Harvard] maintained an extremely high intensity level in every point."

Friday's match against Army provided the needed rest for the crippled Crimson, performing without 14th-ranked Mike Shyjan in singles.

Captain Mark Leschly filled in for shoulder-impaired Shyjan to lambast Cadet Jamie Malekoff, 6-3,6-4, in first singles action.

Mike Zimmerman then bumped off Mark McMullain in second singles, sacrificing just three games in a straight-set slamming.

With his squad leading by a 2-0 score, Harvard's Derek Brown moved up from fifth to third singles to break Army's Mark Haight, 7-6,6-2.

Albert Chang kept the slaughter alive in fourth singles, as he walloped Chris Waters, 6-3,6-2, to put the Crimson one point from clinching the match.

John Tolmie tallied a fifth singles win against Ivan "The Terrible" Brown for the fifth and final singles point to lock the match for Harvard.

"Mike Zimmerman gave me a helpful tip," Tolmie said. "He told me to go for big first serves, rather than just spinning them into the [service] box."

Corndogs

On Saturday, Zimmerman, the 16th-rated player in the country, joined doubles partner Shyjan on the shoulder-injury list, as the Crimson was forced to battle the Big Red without its two nationally ranked players.

"Right now we're not at our strongest, but we're a very deep team," Fish said.

Leschly, Cardi, Chang, and Tolmie moved up to the top four singles spots, where the quartet triumphed in straight sets. Crimson, 9-0 at Beren Tennis Center

Singles Matches