Monday, February 2, 1998
No. 2 UCLA explodes past Arizona
M.TENNIS Bruins grunt their way to victory at Los Angeles Tennis
Center
By Stephanie Chan and Ryota Kawai
Daily Bruin Contributors
In a game where silence reigns, the No. 2 UCLA men’s tennis team
broke the sound barrier against the Pac-10’s Arizona schools this
weekend.
Under skies that threatened to pour rain, the team endured cold
temperatures to beat the No. 43 Sun Devils 6-1 Sunday at the Los
Angeles Tennis Center. The match was originally scheduled to be
held at the LATC on Jan. 31, but was rained out.
In singles, No. 6 Jean-Noel Grinda defeated ASU’s only ranked
player, No. 71 Gustavo Marcaccio.
Vince Allegre, the Bruins top-ranked player at No. 4, beat ASU’s
Alex Osterrieth, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.
Matt Breen quickly dispatched ASU’s Ed Carter. Alex Decret won
his match 5-4 as ASU’s Peter Dani retired. Brandon Kramer defeated
Tim Hammond 4-6, 6-4, 6-4. Chris Sands overwhelmed Casey Was.
Though sweeping the Sun Devils in singles competition, Arizona
State took the doubles point taking two of the three matches.
The Bruin’s No. 1 tandem of Grinda and Breen lost to ASU’s
Carter and Hammond, 7-4.
The Bruin No. 2 squad of Noah Newman and Kramer faced a similar
fate in a touch match of precise serves and well-timed volleys,
losing 6-8.
Putting the Bruins on the doubles board was the No. 3 tandem of
Allegre and Sands. The booming serves of Sands and the experience
of Allegre allowed the tandem to dominate their opponents, ASU’s
Was and Mile Rogers, 8-1.
"I worked hard and put in the extra time to get better, and it
looks like it’s paying off," said Sands.
The Bruin’s grunts of intensity resounded off the blue screens
of the Los Angeles Tennis Center as did the Wildcats screams of
frustration, leading to a Bruin 6-1 victory over No. 61 Arizona on
Friday.
"I’m moving like my grandfather," screamed Arizona’s No. 5
Jean-Noel Lacoste in a dual against Kramer.
"He looked like he was moving a little slow. I was trying to
move him around a lot," said Kramer.
"I think it’s the best match I’ve played so far." Kramer said of
the 6-1, 6-2 victory.
On court No. 1, Grinda seemed to suck up his frustration and
spit it out in the form of winners against Arizona’s Roland Kupka.
He defeated Kupka, 6-4, 6-3.
Court No. 2 featured a grunting match of revenge between Allegre
and Arizona’s Jerome Oliveri.
Oliveri was avenging two previous tournament losses to Allegre.
Allegre was avenging an earlier doubles loss.
"I was very concentrated … because I played him twice before
… in two tournaments in France" said Allegre.
In a match that went uphill and downhill, Allegre finished
uphill, beating Oliveri, 6-4, 6-4.
In the No. 3 match-up, Breen also found the uphill route. After
starting slowly, Breen combined power and finesse to defeat
Arizona’s Michel Stopa, 6-2, 6-1.
"I won all the tough games. That was encouraging," said
Breen.
Decret’s voice echoed from court No. 6 in the No. 4 match. After
a 6-3 first set, Decret completed the win over Arizona’s Mike
MacKay with a 7-6 lead-tossing second set.
Creating perhaps the most noise was Sand’s fan club in the No. 6
match against Arizona’s Pascal Salasca.
In a hard fought match, the score settled with Salasca over
Sands, 3-6, 6-2, 7-6.
Though solid in the singles match-ups, the doubles point could
have gone either way.
Grinda and Breen defeated Arizona’s Kupka and MacKay, 8-5.
Arizona’s Salasca and Lacoste defeated Allegre and Sands, 5-8.
Tandem Decret and Kramer defeated Arizona’s Oliveri and Stopa in
the deciding match, 9-7.
"The doubles point was very scary for us. Without Jason Cook in
the lineup our doubles is even weaker," said UCLA head coach Billy
Martin.
Cook sprained his wrist at practice last Monday. He hopes to
start hitting again this Monday in preparation for Tuesday’s match
against Pepperdine.
PATRICK LAM
Vince Allegre, the Bruin’s top-ranked player, won his Sunday
singles match 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.