"It was tough for me, I am used to playing withKunj; we have had a lot of success over the end oflast year and the beginning of this year," Blakesaid. "I have been counting on him because healmost never gets injured, but he went down, andStyperek played great. He's got a big serve andgreat hands, and we clicked really quickly andmade a good team."

The consistently successful team of Passarellaand Clark continued its stellar doubles play fromearlier in the weekend and took the third doublesmatch 8-6.

However, the big surprise was at No. 1 doubles,where the Hokies boast one of the best teams inthe nation--the 10th-ranked Marchetti brothers,Aaron and Adam.

Up against this dynamic duo the Crimson sentits own set of relatives, cousins Doran and Green.Green had been kept out of the doubles lineup allweekend to keep an injured knee as fresh aspossible. And while the cousins had not playedtogether all year, that is not to say they wereunfamiliar with each other--the pair were theIrish National Champions in the junior ranks.

The Irishmen set about their business of takingon the Marchetti brothers like they had beenplaying together all season. The pair kept itclose and managed a tight 9-7 victory.

"I was surprised, but both of them have biggames and the talent," Blake said. "Both of themcame out fired up and ready to play. When you getthe opportunity to play a top ten team, you wantto capitalize on it, and that's what they did. TheMarchettis played a good match, but our guys cameup with the big shots when it counted."

Just as facing the Marchettis fired up Doranand Green, opponents all season have been gunningfor Harvard's Blake, fourth-ranked nationally inthe preseason. This helps to explain Blake'srelative difficulty over the weekend.

Blake still posted a 4-0 singles record overthe tournament, but three times the All-Americanwas stretched to three sets.

"It was something I had to get used to over thelast couple of years," Blake said. "For some guys[facing me] is the biggest match of the year. Lastyear I may have just relaxed with the belief thatI should win no matter what, but now I go afterthem with the same intensity they have."

One of those tough three-setters was in thesemifinals against host Princeton. The Tigers' No.1, Kyle Kleigerman, won the second set 6-3 afterdropping the first 6-2. Blake won the third set6-1.

"Kleigerman played really well, he hasdefinitely improved since last year," said Blake."I did not feel comfortable during the match andmy legs were not into it for some reason, but Iknew the team match was close, so in the third setI just put more pressure on him and tried to makehim keep hitting great shots.

"That might be the difference between the topplayers and the rest: he couldn't come up with thebig shots in the third when I put lots of pressureon," he said.

The match against Princeton was tightthroughout. The Crimson clinched the doubles point2-1 with Passarella and Clark's 8-4 win at seconddoubles. The miraculous victory was at firstdoubles where Majmudar and Blake dealt withadversity in amazing fashion.

"I just got up from the changeover and my lowerback went out," Majmudar said. "The trainerthought something slipped out but wasn't skilledenough to treat it."

The interesting part is that the injuryoccurred at 1-0, the first changeover of thematch. With Majmudar largely immobilized, theHarvard team had to be creative.