With this knowledge in hand, Majmudar cruised in the final two sets, 6-0, 6-1, in a stunning reversal of fortunes.
Joe Green won the No. 5 slot, 6-4, 6-3, to put Harvard one match away from clinching the win, and the last man on the courts was Blake.
Game, set, match, Harvard. Right?
Not so fast. The normally unbeatable Blake had to deal with the swirling winds, a red-hot Leif Meineke and his newly injured back. Blake lost the first set, 6-3, but turned things around in the second, tying the score with a 6-4 win. The third set was up and down as Blake and Meineke traded service breaks in the third several times before extending the match to a tiebreaker. In the breaker, Meineke had all the answers and took the set with a 7-5 win. The team match stood at 3-3.
"Meineke was playing very well, especially in the third," Majmudar said. "James had just beaten him in straight sets, but the wind was a big equalizer."
The fired-up Broncos rode Meineke's big, match-saving upset into the doubles round. Harvard, in its constant attempt to refine its doubles combinations, sent new teams into the second and third slots. Doran and Clark, playing together for the first time, lost No. 2 doubles 8-5.
The Crimson needed to pull out both matches left on the court to avoid the upset. Both matches went to tiebreakers, with Passarella and sophomore Andrew Styperek winning 9-8 (3) at the third slot.
Unfortunately, the struggling pair of Majmudar and Blake was not able to close things out for the Crimson and lost its tiebreaker 7-5 just seconds later.
The loss dropped the Crimson into the consolation bracket, where New Mexico State awaited it. The Crimson won its first team doubles point in five matches with Blake/Majmudar and Styperek/Passarella winning.
"The conditions were better, and James and I played a lot better," Majmudar said. "It had been frustrating losing so many doubles points in a row."
Blake's back kept him from playing singles, so everyone moved up one slot. Doran, now playing first singles, didn't miss a beat. The junior dropped Marc Legris 6-4, 6-1 in his first action at No. 1 this year. Joe Green was victorious at the No. 4 spot.
"Without James there was a little added pressure, but we knew New Mexico State wasn't as strong as the other teams we had been facing," Majmudar said.
However, New Mexico State hung tough. Passarella lost at third singles, and Styperek dropped a heartbreaker after taking the first set in dominating fashion, 1-6, 6-1, 6-2. The Crimson was still a match short of clinching, and the last two matches on the court were perilous.
Clark had won the first set at No. 5 but lost the second while Majmudar did the opposite. Momentum apparently played no factor as Clark came back to win his third set and clinch the match while Majmudar dropped his third set seconds later to create the final score, 4-3.
Harvard opens its Ivy season by hosting Columbia Friday and Cornell Saturday.
The Crimson did not perform as well as hoped, but the Ivy League consists of teams of a different caliber than those Harvard has seen over the past several weeks, meaning there is a different sort of challenge--avoiding complacency.
"I think losing to Boise State was disappointing, but for us the toughest stretch of this season is behind us," Majmudar said. "These teams are going to be a lot weaker, the highest ranked Ivy League team [besides Harvard] is around 70. It is going to be hard for us to keep up our level of play."