This season is beginning to look more and more like last season for the Harvard men's tennis team.

Once again the team has taken home the ECAC Tournament title and looks to be the dominating team in the upper half of the East Coast.

Once again the team defeated a tough Virginia Tech team to take the title as Scott Clark once again finished the Hokies off with a tough three set match.

Once again injuries are altering the Crimson lineup, and once again the team has not skipped a beat because of its amazing depth.

When Scott Clark dominated his third set against Virginia Tech's Raoule Basole to win 6-1, 4-6, 6-0 and put the finishing touches on the Hokies yesterday in Princeton, N.J., it put an end to a triumphant but possibly costly tournament for the Crimson.

As Clark struggled with his opponent, things were not looking particularly good for the Crimson. The doubles point was in hand and junior Joe Green had quickly dispatched of his opponent 6-2, 6-2 to put the Crimson up 2-0 in the early going. However, sophomore James Blake had split sets with Aaron Marchetti, junior John Doran had fallen in straight sets to Adam Marchetti and sophomore Andrew Styperek had lost the second set 6-3 after taking the first 6-2. Styperek went on to lose the third set 6-4, putting the match at 2-2.

Co-captain Mike Passarella was in a whole different predicament. The senior came into the tournament with nagging injuries and had battled through two three-setters earlier in the weekend. Eventually a pulled stomach muscle and a troubled knee began to act up.

"I couldn't serve too well because of the stomach," said Passarella. "It was definitely kind of stupid to get into those three-setters early on. Normally when you play weaker teams you do not expect to struggle, but it did not work out for me. We were struggling, and my opponent won the first set. I ended up saving a couple match points in the second and ended up winning the set. The guy was basically handling me the match."

Passarella continued to grind while the rest of the team took care of its business. Blake completed his turnaround, earning his third three-set win in the four-daytournament.

"I played [Aaron Marchetti] twice last year andtraveled with him this summer," said Blake. "He isa grinder with a lot of talent, and I expected atough match. After the first I just tried to hangin there and get into the match. I put thepressure on and tried to make him make greatshots. I knew that if it was close at the end Iwould have a chance; I pride myself on coming upbig on the big points."

That's just what Blake did, taking the finalset 7-5 and setting the stage for Clark'sclinching win.

Passarella's match was stopped at 1-1 in thethird set creating the 4-2 final score.

The Crimson got the finals off on the rightfoot with a surprising 3-0 sweep of the doublesmatches against Virginia Tech.

An injury to co-captain Kunj Majmudar's lowerback early in his doubles match against Princetonon Sunday had left the Crimson shuffling itsdoubles lineup right before the biggest match ofthe season thus far.

"We were forced to use a doubles lineup thathadn't been used before," Assistant Coach PeterMandeau said.

Blake, Majmudar's regular partner at No. 1doubles, was teamed with fellow sophomoreStyperek, who himself was pressed into action thisweekend due to injuries to freshmen Cillie Swartand William Lee. Blake and Styperek--playingtogether for the first time--looked like oldpartners in an easy 8-1 win at second doubles.