M. tennis weathers stormy seas against Waves
By Daily Bruin Staff
March 31, 1996 9:00 p.m.
Monday, April 1, 1996
By Mark Shapiro
Daily Bruin Staff
The UCLA men’s tennis team was up to its usual tricks over
break, as it maintained its death grip on the No. 1 spot in the
nation with six weeks to go before the NCAA championships. The
Bruins squeaked past seventh-ranked Pepperdine after posting
decisive victories over Harvard and No. 6 USC.
On Saturday, the Bruins traveled to Malibu to battle Pepperdine
and their vaunted home court win streak dating back several years.
Early on, it looked as if the winning streak would remain
intact.
The Bruins faltered in doubles play and quickly found themselves
down a point as the team of sophomore Justin Gimelstob and senior
Srdjan Muskatirovic lost 9-8, and the No. 2 and 3 teams fell by
scores of 8-6 and 8-4, respectively.
At the top spot, Gimelstob suffered his first defeat of the
season as he fell to Simon Aspelin, who lost in two previous
meetings to Gimelstob, 6-2, 6-4. Junior Eric Taino, normally a
reliable victor at the third position, was toppled by Chris Hill
1-6, 7-6, 6-3. Muskatirovic supplied the only victory at the top of
the ladder with his 6-7, 6-3, 6-2 comeback victory over Michael
Jessup.
The bottom of the ladder was left with the task of sweeping all
three matches to keep UCLA’s perfect record intact. Come through
they did as sophomore Matt Breen, senior Heath Montgomery and
freshman Vincent Allegre all scored victories.
Breen knocked off Brad Sceney 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 at the fourth spot,
Montgomery cleaned up Troy Budgen 6-2, 6-3, and Allegre remained
the last undefeated Bruin as he defeated Masahide Sakamoto 6-4, 6-4
to give the Bruins the 4-3 victory.
On Thursday, in one of their more impressive shows of the
season, the Bruins stomped the 12th-ranked Crimson by a 7-0 count,
giving up only one set in the process.
During dead week, the Bruins traveled across town to face
sixth-ranked USC. The Bruins came away victorious in the season’s
first installment of the rivalry. The highlight of the match was
Gimelstob’s three-set victory over freshman Cecil Mamitt, the No. 1
player in the nation.Comments to [email protected]
