The Harvard men's tennis team was close, but not close enough.

After narrowly losing the first round of the USTA/ITA National Men's Team Indoor Championships on Thursday to No. 4 Mississippi, 4-3, the Crimson (7-2) fell 4-3 to Tennessee in the consolation round Friday in Seattle, Wash. HARVARD  3 TENNESSEE  4 HARVARD  6 OKLAHOMA  0

Harvard sophomore James Blake, the No. 1 player in the country, fell behind 2-5 in the first set against Tennessee's Peter Hondoyo before rallying to win eleven straight games for a 7-5, 6-0 victory.

Harvard's No. 2, Kunj Majmudar, could not overcome a week-long illness or Tennessee's Mark Parsons. Majmudar dropped his singles match, 6-1, 6-4.

Mike Passarella came away with a solid win over the Volunteers' Adam Carey to earn a 6-4, 6-2 win at No. 4 singles. Scott Clark, his doubles partner, also handled Volunteer Mirko Jovanovic for a 7-5, 6-2 win at No. 6 singles.

A loss from Joe Green at No. 5 singles set up a 3-3 tie (Tennessee won the doubles point). The final match came down to No. 3 John Doran's contest versus Tennessee's Mark Way.

Doran took the first set 7-5, but dropped the second 6-2. He could not hold on in the third set, losing 6-3.

All was not lost for Harvard on the weekend, though. The Crimson was able to bounce back on Saturday to crush No. 30 Oklahoma by a score of 6-0.

Although playing without Majmudar, Harvard's top three singles players (Blake, Doran and Passarella) all carried away identical 6-0, 6-2 wins over the Sooners' top three (Charlie Roberson, Dusty Beard and Rick Warren, respectively).

Crimson No. 4 Green needed just 14 games to dispose of the Sooners' Jeremy Dunham, 6-1, 6-1. No. 6 Andrew Styperek came away with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Oklahoma's John Walker.

Since the Crimson won the doubles point with victories by the teams of Blake and Majmudar and Doran and Styperek, and since the No. 5 singles match was suspended, the Crimson walked away with a 6-0 victory.

Harvard will next face Penn State on Sunday at the Sportsman's Tennis Club in Dorchester.