Sophomore James Blake is currently the top-ranked collegiate player in the country. Photo by Jon Chase.

The 17th-ranked Harvard men's tennis team clinched sole possession of its fifth straight Ivy League title with a 6-1 win at Yale on Sunday, April 25. The victory gives the Crimson a 6-0 league record with just one match left to play. Every other Ivy team has at least two losses, so coach Dave Fish's squad stakes claim to its 10th Ivy/EITA title in the last 11 years. In Sunday's match at Yale before a crowd of several hundred, Harvard swept all three doubles matches to earn the doubles team point and then won five of six singles matches.

The Ivy League title gives Harvard an automatic selection to the 1999 NCAA Team Tournament, which begins with Round of 64 play on May 14th. The Crimson has now qualified for the last 10 NCAA Tournaments and has reached the Sweet 16 for the past three years.

Starting things off for the Crimson, Joe Green '00 and Scott Clark '01 earned an 8-5 win over Greg Royce and Scott Mayo. Senior Mike Rich and sophomore James Blake teamed up for their first match ever playing together to clinch the team doubles point with a 9-8 victory over Steve Burke and Gabe Goldstein. Blake's regular doubles partner, Kunj Majmudar '99 was ill and remained in Cambridge. John Doran '00 and co-captain Mike Passarella '99 completed the doubles sweep by edging out Jonathan Beardsley and David Beynet 9-8.

In singles, Clark was the first Crimson player off the court, defeating Scott Mayo at #6 singles 6-4, 6-2. Blake improved to 33-3 on the season with a 6-1, 6-4 dispatching of Yale #1 Jonathan Beardsley. Harvard freshman William Lee turned in a solid performance and clinched the victory for Harvard with his 6-2, 6-0 win over Gabe Goldstein in the #5 singles slot.

With Harvard up 4-0, junior John Doran, Harvard's #2 player was upset by Burke, 7-6, 6-2 for the Crimson's lone loss of the match. To complete the afternoon, Passarella beat Scott Carlton 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 (#4 singles) and Green took out Greg Royce 6- 3, 7-6 (7) at #3 singles.

Harvard owns a 19-4 record.