Tuesday, 5/20/97 Lively crowds provide dynamic support to UCLA
despite losses
By Vytas Mazeika Daily Bruin Staff The crowds in attendance at
the Los Angeles Tennis Center for the men’s intercollegiate
championships have lived up to expectations, and at points have
even exceeded them by becoming too boisterous. The Bruins, who are
hosting the event for only the second time in school history, enjoy
the luxury of 30,000-plus students all within close proximity.
Therefore to no one’s surprise the UCLA faithful have shown up in
prime cheering form to provide the Bruins with frenzied support.
Although the UCLA excitable crowd was not enough to push the Bruins
into the NCAA final today – at times one could see the intensity of
the players rising to new levels. "I have never seen anything like
this at UCLA as far as college tennis is concerned," UCLA coach
Billy Martin said after UCLA’s loss to Georgia in the semifinals.
"I thought the crowd was good. I think the tournament has been a
success so far." One of the most excited Bruin fanatics is "Super
Fan" Kris Roth. Roth, who rooms with six of the UCLA players, runs
around in support of all the Bruins in an attempt to provide moral
support through extremely loud yells – especially for Alex Decret,
whose up-and-down play is highlighted by his many emotional states
during the match. "I am not heckling," Roth pointed out. "I am just
trying to support my team." Roth is one of many extremely vocal
fans, but if compared to the crowds in attendance at UCLA
basketball games, the Bruins seated at LATC come up to a rather
modest group. But that fact does not bother the UCLA fans. These
devoted Bruins more than make up for the empty seats with constant
claps and deafening cheers. In fact, the UCLA fans received a
warning on Sunday for their loudness. They were told by the umpire
that if they did not quiet down a point-penalty would be awarded to
the UCLA team. * * * Stanford, on the other hand, has the
second-loudest cheering section due to its California connection.
"(UCLA as a host) might help us out in the sense that we are able
to get more fans to come down from Northern California to support
us," Stanford No. 1 player Ryan Wolters said Sunday. "I think our
support has increased, but I don’t think that the actual
environment has gotten any worse or any better." But just because
the fans come from the same state does not mean that UCLA and
Stanford fans act similarly. Mississippi, Stanford’s semi-final
victim, complained of the Cardinal fans after the match by alluding
to unsportsmanlike behavior and a lack of tactful and tasteful
heckling. With some collegiate players unable to properly deal with
the crowd’s continuous heckling, sometimes performance can be
affected. "The crowd was riding (Mississippi No. 1 player Johan
Hede) the entire time," Mississippi coach Billy Chadwick said after
his team’s 4-2 loss to Stanford on Monday. "I mean, Johan Hede,
every time that he is changing sides he is telling me ‘Coach, these
guys are doing nothing but harassing me.’ These things wear on the
players." The Stanford players understand the fact that their fans
can get a little too obnoxious. In a show of great sportsmanship
that should be commended, the Cardinal’s No. 4 player Paul
Goldstein – during his loss to Mississippi’s Martin Sjoqvist –
calmed the crowd down in an attempt to the situation from getting
ugly. "The fans started telling me bad words all the time,"
Sjoqvist explained. "So I just told Paul (Goldstein) and he told
(the fans) to stop. That was nice. So they only cheered for him and
that solved the problem. As long as he has the cheering it is all
right. But it gets tough when they start telling bad words all the
time." * * * Since UCLA lost to Georgia in the semifinals, the
rival fans will not be able to duel each other, leaving Sunday’s
match between Mississippi and Boise State as possibly the most
even-matched battle between fans. Both groups of supporters were
only outdone by the hard-fought tennis played by the respective
teams. Mississippi survived 4-3, as throughout the match the
crowd’s intensity appeared to increase after every single point. "I
tell you what did make (the match) a lot of fun," Chadwick
explained. "It was the crowd getting into it. We had some
supporters that … kind of … adopted us."