In those last two weeks, the team has been tuning up by playing on the road in two tournaments. Last week, it was in Tulsa, where it put up a solid performance in doubles but lost lots of points in the singles. That was the opposite situation from the previous week's match at Brown.

Harvard has been greatly helped by the play of the freshmen, who have filled out some low singles spots. Oliver Choo, who won the "B" field title in Providence, will travel with the team, as will Dave Lingman, who saw his first action last week. The early competition has served to acclimate them to the pressures of college tennis, calming the early season jitters.

"After Tulsa, [the ECAC's] will seem easy," Choo said. "We worked on our singles this week, because basically the last two weekends of competition have been to gear up for this."

Along with the two captains and the freshmen, juniors Anthony Barker, Andrew Styperek, and Mike Rich along with sophomore William Lee will make the trip.

Harvard will play Georgetown, the No. 16 seed, in the first round. The ECAC field has 16 teams in a single-elimination tournament, and while 1998 finals foe Virginia Tech won't be participating, Fish says the Crimson should watch out for fellow Ivy League teams Columbia and Princeton.

"They probably seeded us No. 1 because they didn't want to have a fight over the other top teams," Fish said.