"I really couldn't serve and was just gettingit in, which left James to cover a lot of thecourt," said Majmudar. "We broke in the firstgame, and I thought if I could just hold serve,even though I was hurt, we wouldn't have to domuch more. The other team didn't do much to moveme around and take advantage of the injury."
The 8-4 win was the key in securing the alwaysimportant doubles point. With Majmudar suddenlyout of the lineup, everyone below him would haveto move up and step up his play.
The sixth spot was now filled by Styperek,seeing his first singles action of the weekend.Things did not turn out as the sophomore hoped asPrinceton's Alex Zacharia won easily--6-2, 6-4.
Clark, moving up to fourth singles, alsostruggled in a three-set loss. The Crimson got akey victory from John Doran at No. 2 singles as hedefeated Judson Williams 6-2, 7-6(7-4).
Green, a relatively inexperienced player whoplayed spectacularly all weekend, registered theclinching point. His 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 victory overKevin Woo propelled the Crimson into the finalsagainst Virginia Tech.
"Today we were fortunate to have gotten a goodmatch from Princeton," Passarella said. "When Kunjwent down, we knew it was going to be a toughmatch."
The Crimson's first two rounds had neither thedrama nor the significance of the two finalmatches. On Saturday the team cruised past aweaker Army team 7-0.
The only match that was in doubt wasPassarella's at No. 4 singles. The senior alwaysseems to find himself in--and emerging victoriousfrom--three-setters.
"Mike is very tenacious," Mandeau said. "Healways competes well and has played in a number ofthree-setters over the years."
The co-captain took the first set 6-2, droppedthe second 4-6, and finally pulled it out 7-5 inthe third.
The pattern had already been made familiar inthe Crimson's first round match against St.John's.
In that match, Passarella won the first 6-3 anddropped the second 1-6. Passarella pulled it outin this one as well, taking the third 6-3.
In another dominating 7-0 Harvard victory, onlyBlake was also stretched to three sets by hisopponent. Blake was forced into a first settiebreaker, which he won 7-4. However, the secondset went to the St. John's opponent 3-6. Blakeclosed out the match 6-3 in the third.
The ECAC title not only solidifies Harvard'sspot at the top of the regional tennis ranks butalso qualifies the squad for February's NCAAIndoor Championships.
"This is great, especially because we get to goto National Indoors," Passarella said. "Twelve ofthe top 16 teams will be there, so we can get morenational experience. It is also great to win theECAC."
Perhaps the most important lesson learned fromthe weekend was that the Crimson may be just asdeep as it was last year, an invaluable qualityfor one of the top teams in the nation.
"Last year we had success utilizing 11 or 12guys who saw action," Mandeau said. "Generallyteams bring six or eight players. The depth of oursquad allows us to compete at a high level evenwith a spate of injuries."
With its second straight ECAC title in hand, anamazingly deep but banged-up team, and Scott Clarkwinning big matches, things are beginning to looka lot like last year.
Once again, that bodes well for the Harvardmen's tennis team.