The win marked Harvard's 15th straight--datingback to a March 21 loss to Notre Dame--and the endof a six-match winning streak for Virginia Tech.

In winning the region for the third straightyear--the Crimson beat Virginia Tech in the 1997regional finals as well and topped the FloridaGators in 1996--Harvard held serve as the topseed, but it wasn't supposed to be quite thistough. The Crimson was finally getting healthy andhad handled the Hokies easily in the fall.

With the exception of captain Tom Blake, whowas out with a hamstring injury, Harvard was atfull strength, something that hadn't been true forweeks. However, Virginia Tech came to play, asevidenced by their 4-0 upset of second-seededMiami in the semifinals. Including a 4-1 defeat ofPrinceton in the first round, the Hokies had wontheir last six matches by a combined score of 30-2heading into yesterday's contest.

"You certainly know more what to expect at thispoint," Fish said. "At this point you know it'svery tough to get through this regional."

Harvard Declaws Nittany Lions

Things did not look so tough on Saturday asHarvard rolled over fifth-seeded Penn State(11-13) in the semifinals.

The Crimson did not lose a set in the fivematches played--once the doubles point and matchare secured, all matches in progress aresuspended.

The doubles point was clinched at No. 3 in thetightest match of the day. Passarella and Tsenghad to go to the 14th game to fend off DamonAccardi and Jeff Martini 8-6. Blake and Majmudartook No. 1 doubles 8-3. There were, however, sometight moments.

"I told the guys before it started that if theygot down, they were just going to have to keeptheir poise and remember that they played wellthroughout the season and they are going to haveto get the [final] exams out of their system,"Fish said. "There were two critical points at twoand three doubles where we were down breaks atboth places and the guys firmed up and startedbelieving in themselves."

In singles play, Blake started his weekend justas he finished it--dominating. The freshman neededjust over an hour to provide Mike Griesser adouble-bagel at the No. 1 singles spot. All told,Blake lost only two games in singles play and 10total over the weekend.

Blake could not have predicted such anoverpowering performance in his first regionaltournament.

"Anything can happen in regionals, so we didn'twant to leave anything to chance," Blake said. "Iwanted to concentrate on not worrying about theother guys and just worry about me and do the bestI can and get off the court as quickly aspossible. You just have to take care of business."

Clark also had an undefeated weekend insingles. He knocked off Damon Accard at the No. 5spot in a clean 6-2, 6-2 win.

Majmudar took the final bow, as his 6-3, 6-4win at third singles closed the door on PennState.

The Lions had upset Harvard's Ivy League rivaland fourth-seeded Columbia in Friday's play-inround to earn the semi-final berth.