Bruins exit NCAAs early; unseeded player sweeps titles

Tuesday, 5/27/97 Bruins exit NCAAs early; unseeded player sweeps
titles M. TENNIS: Luke Smith of UNLV wins singles and doubles
crowns

By Mark Shapiro Daily Bruin Staff On the final weekend of the
biggest individual tennis tournament of the season, representatives
from the UCLA men’s tennis team were noticeably absent. After all,
it was their tournament in their home stadium, but as the singles
and doubles competitions at the NCAA men’s tennis championships
wound down, there was not a Bruin to be found. It was Friday that
saw the Bruins’ season come to a close when No. 3 seed Eric Taino
and freshman Kevin Kim lost their third-round matches, with Kim
being relegated to the sidelines until next season and Taino, a
senior, ending his UCLA career. Taino, who had started slowly in
each of his two preceding matches only to rally back for a pair of
three-set victories, was unable to get his engine restarted after
some early sputters and was ousted by Olivier Tauma of Virginia
Commonwealth, 6-4, 6-0 in Friday morning’s third-round action.
Taino, who was the second-highest remaining seed, will now try his
hand in the professional ranks. Kim’s road into the third round was
the polar opposite to Taino’s. Kim dropped nary a set in his first
two matches, and had not lost a set in singles competition during
both the team and individual competition. The torrid freshman met
his match in the third round in the form of Luke Smith from UNLV,
who served and volleyed his way to a 6-2, 6-4 victory and a trip to
the quarterfinals. Indeed it was Smith, one of only a handful of
pure serve-and-volley players in the tournament, who would go on to
claim the championship, downing Tauma in Saturday’s semifinal and,
in Sunday’s final, beating George Bastl of USC, 6-4, 6-3, to claim
his first championship. Smith, who hails from Adelaide, Australia,
is the first unseeded player to win the championship since 1991
and, with his No. 65 ranking, the lowest ranked player to take the
crown. * * * In the doubles final, Smith emerged as national
champion once again. He teamed with Tim Blenkiron to defeat USC’s
Bastl and Kyle Spencer, 6-4, 6-4. By winning the doubles
championship in addition to his singles title, Smith became the
first player to pull off the sweep since Alex O’Brien of Stanford
did it in 1992. PATRICK LAM/Daily Bruin Luke Smith of UNLV points
to the crowd following his victory over USC’s George Bastl in the
NCAA singles tennis championship