Harvard Wins Tennis Title to Cap a Surprising Season

Pat List wears a baseball cap with the phrase “You are dust” scrawled on the underside of its brim. Occasionally, List flashes the disparaging message to an opponent to warn him of his impending fate.

“I flick it up if I win,” said List, a Harvard High junior and co-captain of the tennis team. “It hasn’t lost yet.”

Nor has Harvard--at least in the postseason. The Saracens won their third consecutive Southern Section title and first in the 2-A Division on Wednesday, beating Righetti of Santa Maria, 12-6, at Riviera Country Club.

The loss left Righetti Coach Roy Sajona tipping his hat as well.

“(Harvard is) really tough because they are so deep,” said Sajona, whose team finished 21-2 and advanced to the final by beating top-seeded Cate in the semifinals.

Harvard (22-4) is deep enough, in fact, to win the championship despite losing five seniors from last year’s nine-man team and this year’s top player (shoulder injury). In addition, the Saracens moved up from the 1-A Division after winning consecutive championships and joined the San Fernando Valley League.

“I was very impressed by the way we came together,” said Coach Harry Salamandra, toweling off after a group of players drenched him with the contents of a water cooler. “But there was nobody that was a superstar for us.”

There were, however, several outstanding performances Wednesday. List and Chris Pisano, who went undefeated in league play and lost just one set in the playoffs, swept all three doubles opponents in the round-robin format, 6-2, 6-1, 6-0.

The win should silence critics who, according to List, called this a rebuilding team and the weakest Harvard squad in 10 years.

“Ten years?” Salamandra said, pausing. “Maybe five. This team had the least amount of postseason experience in the last five years.”

Mark Wagner and Rickey Schoenberg, the Saracens’ No. 3 doubles team, were not fazed by the inexperience label and swept to 6-3, 6-1, 6-1 wins.

Raj Vaswani, Harvard’s top singles player, defeated Josh Johnston, 6-1, lost to Mark Hickey, 7-6, and lost the third set by default after complaining of leg pains.

Saracen Mike Kim defeated Mike Day, 6-4, and Hickey, 6-4, and lost to Johnston, 6-0. Freshman Chuck Tseng lost to Johnston, 6-2, Day, 6-1, and Hickey, 6-3.

In other doubles matches, Harvard’s Kumaran Arulanantham and John Fogarty defeated Brad Dantzer and Fran Solorio, 6-1, beat Matt Rumbaugh and Mike Hickey, 6-1, and lost to Aaron Smith and Josh Sahara, 6-4.

“We knew that (Righetti was) going to be on fire,” Pisano said. “We were real businesslike.”

It was Pisano who, along with List, spearheaded an unsuccessful campaign to change the team mascot to a Grim Reaper--suggesting the demise of the opponent--clutching a tennis racket instead of a scythe.