"He came out with some pretty big shots and some impressive top spin lobs at the right times," the Mather senior said. "It was sort of a backbreaker, coming down to a matter of a couple of points."

Zimmerman also played hot in doubles when he teamed up with Mike Shyjan to beat the second-seeded Stanford team of Flanagan/Devens in the early rounds.

But the Harvard duo, which has not played in competition for a number of months due to a Zimmerman injury, dropped to the top-seeded USC pair of McPhee and Jonathan Leach in the semifinals.

"Considering it was our first time back and we hadn't played for so long, I didn't think we had that much rust," Shyjan said. "We were playing some of the top teams in the country. I thought it was great that we got that far."

Another Harvard pair, (10th-ranked nationally) Albert Chang and Andrew Rueb, defeated USC's Lanyi/Dkvrot (third-ranked nationally), members of last year's national champion team, 7-6, 2-6, 7-6, after saving five match points against them. In the quarterfinals, Chang and Rueb lost to top-seeded Kronayge/Kruse from Ball State, who won last fall's Volvo All-American championships.

Harvard senior Mike Shyjan had a disappointing tournament in singles competition, losing in the first round and again in the first-round consolation.