By Dave Denicke
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Two days before their first round NCAA regional match on
Saturday, the UCLA men’s tennis team learned a devastating
piece of news: the right wrist of senior co-captain Brandon Kramer,
originally thought to be sprained, was broken.
Kramer fell to the ground in practice on Wednesday, landing on
his right (playing) wrist, fracturing a bone. He will be out for
six to eight weeks and will miss the remainder of this
postseason.
“We’re not nearly as solid in the lineup (without
him),” UCLA head coach Billy Martin said. “I think the
true problem now is that we’re all a little disheartened over
losing Brandon.”
Even without the services of Kramer, though, the Bruins managed
to fend off Notre Dame on Sunday and advance to next week’s
NCAA team finals in Athens, Ga.
“At first I was pretty disappointed. I spent a lot of time
thinking, and just kind of realized that these things
happen,” Kramer said. “I’ll just wait it out, and
hopefully we can go out to Georgia and win the NCAA
championship.”
The team, though, still appeared to be reeling from the loss.
“We had a very bad energy level out there,” Kramer
added. “Even though we won, I thought it was a very poor
performance, especially in singles.”
Starting off on Saturday, UCLA did not expect to have a
difficult time with the University of Missouri-Saint Louis, and
they didn’t. The Bruins stomped all over the Kangaroos,
trouncing them 4-0.
“I think they are at the bottom of the teams we faced this
year,” said Jean-Noel Grinda, who won all four of his
regional matches, including two against the Kangaroos. “When
I see teams like that are in, but Arizona is not, I don’t
think that’s very fair.”
Though the Kangaroos did not have any tricks in their pouches,
the Fighting Irish did live up to their moniker, pushing UCLA to
the limit for three and a half hours before falling 4-2 on Sunday.
Notre Dame capitalized on the downtrodden Bruins and very nearly
pulled off the upset.
“I had hoped that if we could make it competitive, UCLA
being without Kramer would look around and feel a little
threatened,” Notre Dame head coach Bob Bayliss said.
“We did that. I was very proud of our guys, we left it all on
the court.”
After UCLA won the doubles match and Jean-Noel Grinda and Lassi
Ketola won their singles matches, the dual match hinged on the top
singles position. The two seniors, UCLA’s Jong-Min Lee and
Notre Dame’s Ryan Sachire, did not disappoint.
“It was a close match,” Lee said. “There were
a couple of times I’d be up a break and he’d come right
back ““ this is not the sort of match when you’re going
to throw in the towel.”
Sachire, ranked ninth nationally, was serving in the third set
down 5-2 when Lee held two match points against him. Sachire used
clutch serving to prolong the end of his Notre Dame career.
“I just wanted to make him beat me,” Sachire said.
“It’s tough to close out a match. I have to give
Jong-Min a lot of credit. He deserved to win, and UCLA deserved to
advance.”
After Sachire broke Lee to draw to within 4-5 in the decisive
set, Lee used a precision return game to pressure Sachire, winning
the first three points to hold triple match point.
Though Sachire fired off a pair of service winners, eventually
the well ran dry. A double fault at 30-40 sealed the Irish fate and
lifted UCLA into the finals.
Having persevered for two rounds without Kramer, the Bruins must
now refocus their efforts towards the NCAA finals.
UCLA, the tournament’s No. 2 seed, will square off against
No. 15 Texas in the first round of the 16-team final in Georgia in
five days.
“We’ve got a week now to prepare, so hopefully
we’ll be more into it, and get a little tougher,”
Martin said.
Lee summed it best when he said, “We don’t have a
choice, except to work it out. And I’m sure we
will.”