Beneath every championship team, there is a solid foundation of experience.

Junior co-captains Kelly Granat and Kate Roiter are the supporting columns of the Harvard women's tennis team, which captured the Ivy League crown Wednesday.

Granat, an English concentrator from Roslyn, N.Y., is a smart doubles player and boasts a stellar all-court game. Roiter--an especially quick player with an effective net attack--is a psychology concentrator from nearby Weston, Mass.

Both were undefeated in Ivy League play.

How did these two pillars of Harvard tennis get their starts?

From early on, Granat knew that she was destined to play collegiate tennis:

"I wanted to play tennis since I had grown up around the game," Granat says.

Granat's decision to attend Harvard was as natural as her affinity for the court.

"I knew that I had always wanted to go to an Ivy League school, and when a Harvard recruiter was my first contact--I knew that I was going," Granat says.

Roiter's decision to continue her tennis career, however, was not so easy.

"I had played soccer all my life," Roiter says. "It was extremely difficult to pick between the two sports."

Unlike Granat, Roiter did not have her sights set exclusively on Harvard--or an Ivy League school, either.

"Harvard, believe it or not, was one of the last places I originally considered--since I live only 20 minutes away," Roiter says. "Also, it was tempting for me to accept a scholarship at a school further away from home."

However, Roiter gave into her academic pursuits--the informed choice--and stayed in Cambridge.

Although she misses the team aspect of soccer, Roiter sayss that the women's tennis squad certainly has team camaraderie.