Facing stiff competition on its spring trip--Baylor, Houston, Texas A&M and Pepperdine--the Crimson managed only one win, dropped contests to Baylor, Texas A&M and Pepperdine 5-4, 5-4 and 7-2, respectively. Harvard topped only Houston by a 5-4 final.

After a grueling non-conference schedule, the Crimson began its title defense with spankings of Columbia and Cornell on the road by the scores of 7-2 and 8-1.

The Crimson then faced its toughest test of the season, drawing Princeton and Penn on back-to-back days at home. The Tigers and Quakers represented the teams most likely to supplant Harvard as champion.

Wang's return highlighted the weekend series and gave Harvard some crucial momentum. Against Princeton, Wang and Jain, playing at No. 2 and No. 1, each overcame first-set losses to take their individual matches, setting the pace. Magyera also won at No. 3, but Princeton took the No. 4-6 matches to even the overall score at 3-3 heading into the doubles round.

The Crimson won at Nos. 2 and 3 to seal a 5-4 victory.

With this tight match in hand, Harvard entered the Penn match brimming with confidence. Behind Wang--who was back at her customary No. 1 slot--the Crimson romped 8-1.

Harvard avoided let-downs against Brown and Yale the next weekend with 5-4 and 6-3 victories, and the following week, the Crimson completed its perfect 7-0 Ivy season with a 6-3 win over Dartmouth.

Though it dropped a 5-1 decision to cross-town rival Boston University in its final regular-season tune-up, Harvard confidently set its sights on No. 21 Fresno State, its first round opponent.

The No. 47 Crimson was the clear underdog heading into the match, but with big match play experience under its belt, the team remained positive about its chances of surprising the Bulldogs.

Unfortunately it was not to be, as Fresno State simply proved too powerful. Wang dropped her match against Dora Djilianova, the No. 6 ranked player in the country, and three other Crimson players followed suit. Only wins by Jain and Broughton kept Harvard in the match after singles competition.

In the doubles round, however, the Bulldogs buckled down, winning all three matches, taking the contest by a final of 7-2.

"We were definitely disappointed with the loss against Fresno State," Broughton said. "But we are still happy with what we accomplished. We improved so much over the season."

Despite being eliminated from NCAAs in the first round for the second straight year, Harvard players felt that the season was far from a disappointment.

The Crimson spent much of the season without team leader Wang, and when she did play, it was not at 100 percent. That, plus some success with a difficult non-conference schedule, gives Harvard plenty to be proud of in 1999.