For the second consecutive season the Harvard women's tennis team showed that it could take care of business within the confines of the Ivy League, but not outside it.

The Crimson (11-12, 7-0 Ivy) ran the table in league play, but stumbled through a 4-12 record against national-level competition, including a first-round exit from the NCAA tournament at the hands of No. 21 Fresno State.

Despite the limited services of its top player and captain Ivy Wang, Harvard fought its way to its second straight undefeated Ivy season.

But the Crimson struggled through a tough early-season schedule without Wang, the 1998 Ivy League Player of the Year, who was sidelined for much of the year with a severe shoulder injury.

The Crimson looked instead to the leadership and experience of juniors Vedica Jain and Roxanna Curto, as well as sophomore Sanaz Ghazal, to fill in.

Also helping the cause were freshmen Andrea Magyera, who was the 1999 Ivy Rookie of the Year, Fleur Broughton and Sarah McGinty.

Playing without its leader for the first time at the ECAC Championships, the Crimson fought valiantly in the first round of the tournament, battling to a 3-3 tie after the singles round of play before taking two out of three doubles matches to defeat the Bears 5-4.

The success was short-lived, however, as the Crimson suffered a tight 5-4 losses to Yale and Boston College to start the season on a sour note.

Despite the disappointing finish, Harvard was pleased with its ability to compete with a short-handed squad.

"Given that we were playing without Wang, which understandably, is a big loss, I thought we did great," Coach Gordon Graham said. "The fashion in which we played against Brown and Yale was heart-stopping, coming from behind in the last two matches. I think that this was a good experience to know that we can win without Ivy."

With newfound confidence, the Crimson opened its spring season against two of the nation's best teams: William and Mary and Virginia Commonwealth, then the No. 10- and No. 20-ranked teams in the country, respectively. The Crimson suffered a tough 7-2 loss to a clearly superior William and Mary squad, despite impressive showings from Ghazal and Broughton.

Harvard then seemed poised to give VCU all it could handle, and it didn't disappoint. After falling behind 4-2 through singles play, the Crimson teams of Jain/Magyera and Curto/McGinty pulled out doubles wins to even the match.

The upset was not to be, however, as Ghazal and Broughton were unable to pull out their No. 1 doubles match, and Harvard fell 5-4.

After a brief winning interlude--a 7-2 decision over Richmond in its home opener--the Crimson took to the road against highly touted Mississippi and Vanderbilt, and despite some gutsy play, was trounced 9-0 by each.

Things got no easier for Harvard, as No. 26 Miami came to town next. In the singles portion of the competition every match was highly contested, with three of the six going to three sets. The Crimson could only manage to pull out one of them, though--Curto's three-set win at No. 6. Miami clinched the match after the singles round and won 6-3.