Irvine poses problems for m. tennis

Wednesday, April 10, 1996

Bruins struggle to pull off win without three key playersBy Mark
Shapiro

Daily Bruin Staff

If only National Geographic could have been there. Anteaters
were on the loose at the Los Angeles Tennis Center and they were
looking for bear. The top-ranked UCLA men’s tennis team got one of
its biggest scares of the season as UC Irvine gave the Bruins
everything they could handle and more before finally succumbing
5-2.

The Bruins were in trouble before the match even got started
when senior Srdjan Muskatirovic and freshman Vincent Allegre were
scratched from the lineup due to nagging injuries and junior Eric
Taino came down with the flu. So, it was with a patchwork lineup
that UCLA went into battle against the 23rd-ranked Anteaters and
they did little to impress on the road to victory.

"I was really disappointed with singles," UCLA head coach Billy
Martin said. "We let ourselves play at their level and if we’re
going to be NCAA champions, we can’t do that. We’ve got to be at
our level, step out there and just go through teams like this."

The match started off well as the Bruins swept the three doubles
matches to go up 1-0, but the struggles were on their way.
Sophomore Justin Gimelstob fought through a lethargic start and the
huge serve of Julian Foxon to come away with a 7-6, 6-2
victory.

"I just got lucky," Gimelstob said. "I was playing really poorly
and I was just lucky to get out of that set and get a little
momentum in the second set. Obviously, we would like to be a little
more impressive but it’s always good to have a tough match under
your belt."

Taino, who was struggling with the flu, fell to Marc Tardif 7-6,
7-5 at the second position and senior Heath Montgomery let two
match points slip away in gut-wrenching 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (14-12) loss
to Steve Tallakson.

"(Montgomery) has got to believe he can win," Martin said. "It’s
discouraging from a coaching standpoint to see him get to the point
where he should win and he’s the last one that thinks he can win.
Until he believes that he can win and should win, he’s probably not
going to win consistently."

Sophomore Matt Breen came up with a workman-like three-set
victory. Thomas Bohun and junior Jason Thompson pulled out a
similar three set victories over Cameran Lindee at the fourth and
fifth spots respectively. Junior Eric Lin, in his first singles
action in some time, had to rally from a 5-2 deficit in the third
set to overcome David Chang to close out the scoring.

"I was just concentrating hard and (UCLA assistant coach Brett
Greenwood) said we needed the match, so I just tried to bring it
back," Lin said.

FRED HE/Daily Bruin

Sophomore Matt Breen managed a three-set victory, contributing
to the Bruins’ hard-fought win against the Anteaters.