Wednesday, January 21, 1998
Bruins look to crush Irvine
PREVIEW Top-ranking team counts on bringing back resounding
victory from match with Anteaters
By Stephanie Chan
Daily Bruin Contributor
The UCLA men’s tennis team takes the road for its first away
match of the season today at 1 p.m. The road: the 405 freeway.
Destination: UC Irvine – home of the Anteaters.
The Bruins dominate the numbers, ranking second nationally,
while UCI sits at No. 70. Regionally, in a pool of 15, UCLA matches
its national ranking at No. 2, and UCI falls in at No. 13.
If the rankings tell the story, then individually the Bruins
have the advantage over the Anteaters. UCLA holds five rankings in
the national top 100 places: No. 4 Vince Allegre, No. 6 Jean-Noel
Grinda, No. 54 Matt Breen, No. 70 Jason Cook and No. 92 Alex
Decret. UCI holds none.
Though pretty on paper, the numbers do not always match up with
reality. That is where the playing comes in.
Last year, UCLA’s No. 2 Kevin Kim was defeated by UCI’s Thomas
Bohun, 7-5, 7-5; Kim ranked 22nd nationally at the time. Kim’s loss
kept the Bruins short of the bagel as they ultimately captured the
win, 6-1.
Returners Breen, Decret, Allegre, and Cook contributed 4 points
to last year’s 6-1 finish, over UCI’s Robin Walker, Cameron Lindee,
Andrew Cheney and Nick Varvais, respectively.
UCI returns Bohun, Varvais and Cheney to the singles stack for
today’s match.
UCI is coming off a 7-0 shutout of St. Mary’s on Jan. 11.