With the No. 17 ranking in the country and the nation's best player, the Harvard men's tennis team probably had an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament locked up.

But why risk a vote?

The Crimson (19-4, 6-0 Ivy) continued its dominance of the Ivy League this weekend, clinching the division championship by beating Brown 7-0 on Friday at the Murr Center and Yale 6-1 yesterday in New Haven. HARVARD  7 BROWN  0 YALE  1 HARVARD  6

The title, Harvard's 10th in the last 11 years and fifth straight, carries an automatic NCAA bid. The wins also extended its home-winning streak to 36 matches.

"Basically, I think we kind of expected to win the Ivy title this year," co-captain Mike Passarella said. "It's still nice to finally wrap that up."

Only junior John Doran dropped a singles match this weekend, and the Crimson swept all six doubles matches despite playing again without ill co-captain Kunj Majmudar and sophomore Andrew Styperek.

Harvard had more difficulty with the gusty winds yesterday at Barnaby Courts than with Yale.

The actual Ivy clincher came in the third singles match of the day, with Harvard already ahead 3-0.

In dominant fashion fitting for Harvard's Ivy season, freshman William Lee blew out Eli freshman Gabe Goldstein, 6-2, 6-0, despite playing one slot ahead of his usual No. 6.

"[Lee] has not seen much action under pressure," Assistant Coach Peter Mandeau said. "We put him at No. 5 to give him some experience, and William stepped up."

The doubles teams set the pace for the Crimson yesterday as junior Joe Green and sophomore Scott Clark, playing in the No. 3 slot, opened the match with an 8-5 win.

Sophomore James Blake, the nation's No. 1 player, then paired up with fellow sophomore Mike Rich for the first time.

Rich, who has not seen much varsity action this year, rose to the occasion in the tiebreaker. He kept the Elis off balance with his serve, allowing Blake to slam home the winners. The pair won 9-8.

Rich was the second new partner for Blake on the weekend as Blake teamed with sophomore Anthony Barker in an 8-5 win against Brown.

"Normally, it's just hard to come in and play with James," Passarella said. "You think, 'Oh God, don't let me screw things up.' Both guys were real aggressive and fit in nicely."

Doran and Passarella closed out the doubles with another 9-8 squeaker.