COURTNEY STEWART Sophomore Jean-Julian
Rojer serves up the ball during a match against USC on
Friday. UCLA d. Cal Poly SLO 7-0
UCLA d. USC 5-2
By Greg Schain
Daily Bruin Contributor
During spring break the No. 1 UCLA men’s tennis team
continued its dominance of college tennis, defeating unranked Cal
Poly San Luis Obispo 7-0 and No. 21 USC 5-2. The wins bring UCLA to
16-0 overall and 6-0 in the Pac-10.
The Bruins swept Cal Poly SLO on Wednesday at the Los Angeles
Tennis Center despite sitting out a couple of their top players.
Senior Jean-Noel Grinda, who normally plays No. 2 singles,
didn’t play in order to give senior Chris Sands a chance to
start. Sands, a co-captain, was inserted into the No. 6 position
and everyone else moved up a spot. He handily defeated freshman
Stacy Merenoff 6-2, 6-0.
Freshman Tobias Clemens, the regular No. 3 singles player, also
was unable to play against both Cal Poly and USC due to a nagging
foot injury. He has not played a match since being injured on March
6 at USC.
Despite not going with their top lineup, every UCLA player
breezed through his respective match. At No. 1 singles sophomore
Jean-Julien Rojer defeated senior Brandon Fallon 6-2, 6-3.
At No. 2, freshman Marcin Matkowski, who normally plays No. 4
singles, beat senior John Cappello 6-2, 6-3. At No. 3, sophomore
Erfan Djahangiri defeated freshman Mike Marquez 6-0, 6-2.
To round out the singles play, freshman Lassi Ketola beat
freshman Nick Tracy 6-0, 6-2, and sophomore Travis Rettenmaier
defeated freshman Nick Carless 6-2, 6-0.
The Bruins also won all three doubles matches en route to
claiming the doubles point.
“It was a good little warm up for us with the USC match
coming up on Friday,” UCLA Head Coach Billy Martin said.
“I knew it wasn’t going to be a super tough
match.”
Friday’s match against USC at the LATC was not as easy for
the Bruins. For the third time this year, Rojer was defeated by
junior Andrew Park 6-3, 6-3. Park seems to have Rojer’s
number this year.
“(Rojer) does not match up well against Andrew
Park,” Martin said. “But I think Andrew Park can beat
anybody in college tennis.”
Grinda was back at No. 2 singles on Friday, defeating freshman
Damien Spizzo 7-5, 6-3. At No. 3 Marcin Matkowski defeated junior
Ryan Moore 7-6(6), 6-2.
At No. 4 singles, Erfan Djahangiri struggled against Ruben
Torres, but managed to pull out a 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory.
To round out the top six, Lassi Ketola beat junior Nick Rainey
6-4, 6-3, and Travis Rettenmaier defeated sophomore Parker Collins
6-4, 6-2.
Despite their overall success in singles, the Bruins showed
vulnerability in doubles against the Trojans. Rojer and Grinda were
defeated by Moore and Rainey 8-6, despite being up a break early in
the match.
Djahangiri and Ketola also lost, costing the Bruins the doubles
point.
“It was good for us to lose the doubles point,”
Martin said. “It is good to know that our guys can lose the
doubles point against a good team and still win the
match.”
Today, the Bruins will face Oxford University (the one in
England) in a non-NCAA match. This weekend, UCLA will play arguably
their most important dual matches of the season against Stanford
and Cal.
The Bruins will be without Rojer for those matches because he is
in Uruguay playing in the Davis Cup for his home country, the
Netherlands-Antilles. Despite his absence, Assistant Coach Jason
Sher feels that the Bruins can still win this weekend’s
matches.
“It would be great to have (Rojer) on the team, but we
have eight really strong players, and plus we are home,” he
said.
Chris Sands will most likely play at No. 6 singles during
Rojer’s absence.
“He (Sands) has been waiting for this chance all
year,” Sher said. “He is very excited about
it.”