There may be few certainties in life, but success for the Harvard men's tennis team is clearly one of them.

Led by the spectacular play of sophomore James Blake, as well as from co-captains Kunj Majmudar and Mike Passarella, the Crimson (22-5, 7-0 Ivy) dominated the Ivy League yet again this season to clinch its fifth consecutive conference crown.

Harvard sent up a formidable lineup this season. Aside from Majmudar, Passarella and All-American Blake, the Crimson also boasted excellent play from juniors John Doran and Joe Green.

"We had a very strong and talented team this season," Passarella said. "[Blake] was simply phenomenal and [Majmudar] played great too. Every player on the team improved tremendously over the year."

The Crimson began play this year in the fall, competing in the ECAC Championships at Princeton in mid-October.

The Crimson breezed through the first two rounds of the 16 team tournament, crushing both St. John's and then Army by the score of 7-0.

Next up for Harvard was tough Ivy foe, Princeton. The Tigers gave the Crimson a bit more of a fight, but behind the solid play of Blake and Majmudar, Harvard cruised to a 5-2 win. In the final, it was more of the same, as the Crimson clinched the title with a 4-2 victory over Virginia Tech.

Harvard did not take to the courts again as a team until February, but when it did, its top singles player, Blake, also was the country's No. 1 ranked player.

To open the spring season, the Crimson hosted two of the nation's stronger teams: No. 27 Kentucky and No. 12 Tennessee.

Blake avenged a loss earlier in the season to the Wildcat's Carlos Drada with a three-set win. Majmudar, Green and Doran followed suit winning their singles matches to fight off Kentucky, clinching the 4-3 victory.

The next day, invigorated after its success against the Wildcats, Harvard blasted favorite Tennessee, 6-1. Blake once again led Harvard with a strong straight-set win.

The Crimson headed into the National Men's Indoor Tennis Championships the next week, where it faced off against national No. 4 Mississippi. Despite a valiant effort, Harvard could not pull off the upset, falling by a final of 4-3.

In the next round, the Crimson took on Tennessee in rematch of the previous week's match. This time around, however, the Vols were ready, and they avenged the earlier loss by sneaking by Harvard, 4-3. The Crimson did manage to blank Oklahoma, 6-0, to end the weekend on a positive note.

After these tough opening matches, Harvard continued its out of conference schedule with mixed results.

The Crimson rebounded from its 1-2 performance at the indoor championships with convincing wins over Penn State and Virginia Commonwealth by the counts of 7-0 and 5-2, respectively.