Thursday, January 22, 1998
Bruins sweep up Anteaters in first away singles match
One loss in doubles prevents team from utter domination
By Ryota Kawai
Daily Bruin Contributor
The men’s tennis team defeated the Anteaters of UC Irvine in
impressive fashion with a 7-0 victory yesterday. The No.2 Bruins
traveled to No. 70 UCI for their first away match of the new
season.
The team’s five ranked players in the ITA rankings all had
impressive showings in the match. Freshman Jean-Noel Grinda, ranked
No. 6 in singles, defeated UCI’s Thomas Bohun 6-4, 6-4. Last year,
Bohun defeated the Bruins’ No.2 Kevin Kim, 7-5, 7-5. Kim, ranked
22nd at the time, has since turned pro, but the defeat last year
prevented the Bruins from a perfect sweep at last year’s match.
The Bruins would not be prevented from a shutout this year of
the Anteaters. Junior Vince Allegre, ranked No. 4, beat Nick
Varvais, 6-2, 7-6.
Other victories include senior Matt Breen (No.54) over Andrew
Chaney 6-1, 6-4; junior Jason Cook (No. 70) over David Matthew 6-0,
6-1; senior Alex Decret (No. 92) over Brett Lucas, 6-7, 6-4, 6-0;
and junior Brandon Kramer over Chris Ma, 2-6, 6-2, 6-1.
The only defeat the team faced was in doubles, as the Bruins won
only two of their three matches. The tandem of Cook and Breen lost
to Bohun and Chaney 6-8; Decret and Kramer beat David Chang and
Robbie Wilkins, 8-5; and Grinda and freshman Chris Sands defeated
Lukas and Matthew, 8-2.
Breen felt that his contribution was satisfying. "My singles was
pretty solid. I played him (Chaney) pretty good," said Breen.
"Overall, the team played very well and it is good that we are on a
winning streak."
With two victories already logged by the team, the Bruins hope
to continue with a successful Pac-10 season. The team will play
UNLV at the Los Angeles Tennis Center (LATC) on Jan. 24, and then
move on to Pac-10 play against the Arizona Wildcats on Jan. 30,
also at the LATC. The UNLV match against the Bruins will be held at
noon and admission will be free.
"We are optimistic about our chances against UNLV," said Breen.
"They lost a couple of their players. If we play tough like we have
been doing, then we have a good chance of beating them."