"I said `This gives me a chance to be a hero,' but I was joking, I didn't really think it would happen. It just ended up that way."
So spoke freshman Scott Clark yesterday after his clutch 6-7 (1-6), 6-4, 6-1 come-from-behind victory over Virginia Tech senior Mark Tepes at No. 5 singles that clinched a 4-3 victory over the third-seeded Hokies and the Crimson's second straight NCAA Region One tennis championship.
The victory earned the Crimson (21-3) a berth in the 16-team NCAA Championships to be played in Athens, Ga. from May 23-26.
Clark, a native of Auckland, New Zealand, who came off Harvard's well-populated injury list two weekends ago against Army and Cornell, persevered through a tough first set loss to turn things around and extend Harvard's season.
"Somehow he kept coming up with big shots at the right time," said Coach Dave Fish '72. "Tepes kept fighting, but Scott would somehow get one more punch in there."
Clark's heroics ended an up-and-down match that saw Harvard lose the doubles point, storm back in the early singles matches to take a 3-1 lead and then allow the Hokies to tie things up at 3-3. The match was only the second time all season that the Crimson has lost the doubles point and come back to win. PENN STATE 0 HARVARD 4 The day got off to an inauspicious start when Virginia Tech's Lance Mills and Marek Pfeil defeated Clark and junior Elliot Weiss 8-6 at No. 2 doubles to clinch the all-important first point in the match. Harvard also dropped the third doubles match as co-captain Philip Tseng and junior Mike Passarella lost to Tepes and Rahule Basole. Freshman James Blake and junior Kunj Majmudar earned a hard-fought 8-5 victory over the Marchetti brothers, Aaron and Adam, at first doubles. Down 1-0, Harvard looked to Blake--at 36-4 its steadiest player this season--at the No. 1 singles spot to turn things around. Blake wasted no time in doing just that. The freshman--ranked No. 20 in the country heading into the weekend--stomped the higher-ranked Aaron Marchetti (No. 17) 6-0, 6-2 in a battle of prominent Region One brothers. Blake may have been making a statement to Marchetti with this overpowering performance--both will be competing in NCAA singles tournament in Athens from May 27-31. Following Blake's lead was the Crimson's No. 3 player Majmudar. The junior was also highly impressive in a commanding 6-2, 6-2 victory over Mills. When Tseng handled Pfeil with relative ease,6-4, 6-2, Harvard looked to be in the driver'sseat with a 3-1 lead. A repeat of the Crimson's6-1 domination of the Hokies in the finals of theECAC Tournament during the fall seemed imminent. But as soon as Harvard had swung things in itsfavor, Virginia Tech reasserted itself. The Hokiesgot wins at No. 2 and No. 6 singles to even thingsup at 3-3. Passarella had Harvard's best chance ofwrapping things up at the sixth spot. The juniordropped the first set to Basole 3-6, but regainedmomentum by taking the second set by an identical6-3 score. However, Basole kept the Hokies in thematch with a 6-1 domination in the third set. The other Marchetti, Adam, was impressive atthe No. 2 spot, defeating Doran 6-3, 6-4. The two Hokie victories set the stage for theshowdown at No. 5 singles with everything on theline. "It came down to where we wanted it," saidVirginia Tech Coach Larsen Bowker in a pressrelease. "We had two seniors on the court last,but we couldn't get it done." Read more in SportsRecommended Articles
