Indeed, Harvard does have a strong team—in fact, an embarrassment of riches might be a more appropriate term.

During this season’s brief Ivy campaign, the Crimson has alternated between two Top-100 players—No. 88 Chu and No. 34 co-captain David Lingman—for the first and second singles spots. Additionally, the team has used eight different players to fill the remaining four singles spots.

Harvard has lost just five singles matches of the 24 played.

Additionally, the team has utilized seven different doubles combination in the three slots during Ivy competition, winning all four doubles points.

“I’ve been really pleased with just about everybody,” Fish said with a laugh when asked to pick the strongest performances of his team. “I think they’ve all done a good job.”

The same could be said of the Brown players though.

The Bears have not lost more than one dual match in a row all season. Like the Crimson, Brown has dropped just five of 24 singles matches and has secured all four doubles points.

“This [match] is so hyped…because of the rivalry that we’ve established over the last two and a half years,” Chu explained. “We’ve both performed better than the other schools in the league, and there’s always the need for a rivalry. It’s like the Yankees and Red Sox right now.”

But while the Sox are missing Nomar and the Bronx Bombers are still waiting for A-Rod to wake up, Harvard seems to have finally rounded out its lineup.

Junior Martin Wetzel, who had not played in months, returned to action last weekend and split his matches. Nguyen, who had been sidelined throughout the Ivy competition with a lingering back injury, declared himself “well enough to play.” And though senior Mark Riddell missed last Friday’s match, he played—and won—on Saturday.

But the Bears aren’t scared.

“I actually haven’t been checking the Harvard lineups—I haven’t been looking at their website recently,” Goldberg admitted, “but I’m sure they’ll do what they’ll do, so we’ve just got to go out and play whoever we play.”

Brown coach Jay Harris agreed, mentioning that “we look forward to taking the title back.”

As do the Brown fans, who will certainly outnumber the Crimson faithful in Providence today. But Harvard is paying that fact no mind.

“We’re going to perform the same way, with or without [our fans],” Chu promised. “And we know that their spirits are with us.