M. Tennis takes title, crushes Cardinal
By Daily Bruin Staff
Feb. 26, 1996 9:00 p.m.
M. Tennis takes title, crushes Cardinal
By Mark Shapiro
Daily Bruin Contributor
The UCLA men’s tennis team rolled into the National Indoors over
the weekend with a perfect 7-0 record and the No. 2 ranking in the
nation.
After four days on the quick courts at Louisville, the Bruins
retained their perfect record and defeated the top-ranked team in
the country. But most importantly, they won the tournament in
convincing fashion, virtually assuring them a No. 1 national
ranking.
The Bruins steamrolled a draw made up of the top 16 teams in the
country, leading to their battle with No. 1 Stanford for the title.
The Cardinal was riding a 37-match winning streak, and fielded a
team similar to last year’s squad which took the national
championship and beat the Bruins twice.
All of Stanford’s stats and hype couldn’t help them as UCLA
stomped them by a 5-1 count. Sophomore Justin Gimelstob led the way
by defeating Jeff Salzenstein 6-2, 7-5. Senior Srdjan Muskatirovic
followed suit as he crushed much ballyhooed freshman Ryan Wolters
6-2, 6-3. Also posting victories in the deciding dual match were
sophomore Matt Breen at the fifth position and No. 3 Eric
Taino.
The Bruins notched their first point of the match by squeaking
out the doubles point. The top-ranked team of Gimelstob and
Muskatirovic pulled out a 9-7 victory and Taino and Breen closed
out the doubles following a loss by Eric Lin and Jason Thompson,
taking their match by the closest of margins, 9-8.
It was an especially sweet victory for the Bruins, who not only
beat a team that swept them last year, they also earned the
championship of the tournament second only to the NCAA
championships in prestige.
UCLA’s road to the championship was remarkably smooth
considering the competition, which only serves as a testament to
the quality of tennis the Bruins were playing on the extremely fast
indoor courts.
After disposing of Harvard University in the first round, UCLA
found itself matched against a Pepperdine team that they had
humiliated 6-1 only a few weeks before. This round wasn’t much
different as the Bruins handed the Waves another beating, this time
by a 5-1 count as the unfinished matches were called off once the
Bruins had the dual match in hand.
The semifinal also looked to be stiff challenge for the Bruins
as they faced the University of Mississippi, which was ranked in
the top five. This did not faze UCLA, as it again cruised, posting
a 4-1 victory to set up the final match with Stanford.Comments to
[email protected]
